Local church to cops: 'We have your back'
By Ray Lane
MILL CREEK, Wash. - A Snohomish County church dedicated its Sunday service to those who serve. It was a chance to honor the fallen officers - and salute those who are still on the streets.
The Rev. Dan Kellogg of Gold Creek Community Church says he got the idea after he learned that the morale of officers in his own congregation was low.
The killing of five police officers and a sheriff's deputy in a span of less than two months had taken its toll - so many funerals, so much heartbreak.
"There's this atmosphere where there's a target painted on officers' backs," Rev. Kellogg said. "And it just seems like we should not have that in our community. This should not be, and we can do something about it."
read more here
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/81937947.html
Monday, January 18, 2010
Local church to cops: 'We have your back'
Here is something every community should do as well.
Soldier guilty of cruelty and maltreatment in Iraq
Soldier guilty of cruelty and maltreatment in Iraq
By JoANNE VIVIANO Associated Press Writer
Posted: 01/18/2010 08:34:16 AM PST
Updated: 01/18/2010 10:39:12 AM PST
COLUMBUS, Ohio—A military panel in Kuwait convicted a U.S. soldier of being cruel and mistreating fellow soldiers, a case undertaken after an Army private from Ohio committed suicide in Iraq.
Staff Sgt. Enoch Chatman, of West Covina, Calif., was convicted Wednesday on two violations of the cruelty and maltreatment article of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, said Lt. Col. Kevin Olson, a military spokesman in Iraq.
Chatman was one of four soldiers accused of mistreating others in their platoon in Iraq through verbal abuse, physical punishment and ridicule of other soldiers.
The investigation was prompted by the August death of Pvt. Keiffer Wilhelm, who grew up in Willard in northwest Ohio.
Wilhelm, 19, was in Iraq with his new platoon for just 10 days before he killed himself. His family believes he was treated so badly that he took his own life, but the military has determined there was no direct evidence the four soldiers' misconduct caused the death.
read more here
Soldier guilty of cruelty and maltreatment in Iraq
By JoANNE VIVIANO Associated Press Writer
Posted: 01/18/2010 08:34:16 AM PST
Updated: 01/18/2010 10:39:12 AM PST
COLUMBUS, Ohio—A military panel in Kuwait convicted a U.S. soldier of being cruel and mistreating fellow soldiers, a case undertaken after an Army private from Ohio committed suicide in Iraq.
Staff Sgt. Enoch Chatman, of West Covina, Calif., was convicted Wednesday on two violations of the cruelty and maltreatment article of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, said Lt. Col. Kevin Olson, a military spokesman in Iraq.
Chatman was one of four soldiers accused of mistreating others in their platoon in Iraq through verbal abuse, physical punishment and ridicule of other soldiers.
The investigation was prompted by the August death of Pvt. Keiffer Wilhelm, who grew up in Willard in northwest Ohio.
Wilhelm, 19, was in Iraq with his new platoon for just 10 days before he killed himself. His family believes he was treated so badly that he took his own life, but the military has determined there was no direct evidence the four soldiers' misconduct caused the death.
read more here
Soldier guilty of cruelty and maltreatment in Iraq
We weep at Agent Orange, laugh at reporter
A Vet's Story -- Part II
We weep at Agent Orange, laugh at reporter
By Randy Hollifield
As told to daughter Landdis
Published: January 17, 2010
Editor's note: This is the second of a three-part, first-person story about Randy Hollifield's experiences in the Vietnam War and at a recent reunion. Randy told the story to his daughter, Landdis, who wrote this account. Randy hopes to bring the Traveling Vietnam War Memorial to McDowell County. In part one of this story, which appeared Friday, Randy told of arriving in Vietnam on his first wedding anniversary and also his first day at the reunion decades later.
The next day's events started out the same way. Breakfast was served and then we all gathered back together to share more stories. Eventually those stories led to us talking about something we had all seemed to avoid up to this point -- what Agent Orange had done to so many Vietnam veterans. Agent Orange was a chemical that was used in Vietnam to kill plants and foliage so that the enemy could be more clearly detected. It was commonly applied to large areas of land via tanker plane, and Camp Carroll received some of the heaviest concentrations of the chemical during the Vietnam War.
It was about a reporter who had arrived at the Gio Linh Firebase during late March 1967. He had arrived by Huey chopper and seemed very out of place among us soldiers. He was lanky, soft spoken and redheaded. He was a war correspondent on his first assignment, and he wanted to see what was happening firsthand. As usual, at dark our camp began to get fired on by incoming artillery and mortar rounds. The attack that night was especially heavy with more than 750 rounds coming in intermittently all night. Needless to say this young reporter was ready to get the heck out of Dodge by daybreak.
He had seen all he needed to see and was ready to head any place south. It was obvious the young reporter had alternative reasons for leaving other than to file his story. We told him just to stay a while and see what was really going on. We helped him send his story through a secure communication system, giving him no excuse to leave so fast. Little did we know that the redheaded reporter who had filed his first story from a Fire Direction Control Bunker would go on to be ABC anchorman Ted Koppel. The story had lightened the mood and ended the evening on a happy note. We had all laughed remembering back to that day when the reporter had arrived. No one would have realized that this scared young man would one day be an anchor on a major network.
read more here
We weep at Agent Orange, laugh at reporter
We weep at Agent Orange, laugh at reporter
By Randy Hollifield
As told to daughter Landdis
Published: January 17, 2010
Editor's note: This is the second of a three-part, first-person story about Randy Hollifield's experiences in the Vietnam War and at a recent reunion. Randy told the story to his daughter, Landdis, who wrote this account. Randy hopes to bring the Traveling Vietnam War Memorial to McDowell County. In part one of this story, which appeared Friday, Randy told of arriving in Vietnam on his first wedding anniversary and also his first day at the reunion decades later.
The next day's events started out the same way. Breakfast was served and then we all gathered back together to share more stories. Eventually those stories led to us talking about something we had all seemed to avoid up to this point -- what Agent Orange had done to so many Vietnam veterans. Agent Orange was a chemical that was used in Vietnam to kill plants and foliage so that the enemy could be more clearly detected. It was commonly applied to large areas of land via tanker plane, and Camp Carroll received some of the heaviest concentrations of the chemical during the Vietnam War.
It was about a reporter who had arrived at the Gio Linh Firebase during late March 1967. He had arrived by Huey chopper and seemed very out of place among us soldiers. He was lanky, soft spoken and redheaded. He was a war correspondent on his first assignment, and he wanted to see what was happening firsthand. As usual, at dark our camp began to get fired on by incoming artillery and mortar rounds. The attack that night was especially heavy with more than 750 rounds coming in intermittently all night. Needless to say this young reporter was ready to get the heck out of Dodge by daybreak.
He had seen all he needed to see and was ready to head any place south. It was obvious the young reporter had alternative reasons for leaving other than to file his story. We told him just to stay a while and see what was really going on. We helped him send his story through a secure communication system, giving him no excuse to leave so fast. Little did we know that the redheaded reporter who had filed his first story from a Fire Direction Control Bunker would go on to be ABC anchorman Ted Koppel. The story had lightened the mood and ended the evening on a happy note. We had all laughed remembering back to that day when the reporter had arrived. No one would have realized that this scared young man would one day be an anchor on a major network.
read more here
We weep at Agent Orange, laugh at reporter
Vietnam Vets Honored With 'Order Of Silver Rose'
Vietnam Vets Honored With 'Order Of Silver Rose'
To Those Affected By 'Agent Orange'
BY BILL JONES
STAFF WRITER
Two Vietnam War veterans were honored at the St. James Community Center on Friday night with the Order of the Silver Rose, a medal that recognizes veterans who have developed medical problems as the result of exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam.
Friday night's recipients were retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Dale Neas, of Old Newport Road, Greeneville, and the late U.S. Army and Tennessee Army national Guard Sgt. 1st Class Ledmond "Huck" Huckleby of Silvan Circle, Greeneville.
In making the medal presentations, Bill Thomason, a retired U.S. Army master sergeant who lives in Parrottsville and coordinates the Order of the Silver Rose program for Northeast Tennessee, noted that Vietnam veterans are dying at a rate of about 290 each day, many from the effects of exposure to Agency Orange, a herbicide that was sprayed from the air onto jungle vegetation to deprive the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese of cover.
read more here
http://www.greenevillesun.com/story/307649
To Those Affected By 'Agent Orange'
BY BILL JONES
STAFF WRITER
Two Vietnam War veterans were honored at the St. James Community Center on Friday night with the Order of the Silver Rose, a medal that recognizes veterans who have developed medical problems as the result of exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam.
Friday night's recipients were retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Dale Neas, of Old Newport Road, Greeneville, and the late U.S. Army and Tennessee Army national Guard Sgt. 1st Class Ledmond "Huck" Huckleby of Silvan Circle, Greeneville.
In making the medal presentations, Bill Thomason, a retired U.S. Army master sergeant who lives in Parrottsville and coordinates the Order of the Silver Rose program for Northeast Tennessee, noted that Vietnam veterans are dying at a rate of about 290 each day, many from the effects of exposure to Agency Orange, a herbicide that was sprayed from the air onto jungle vegetation to deprive the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese of cover.
read more here
http://www.greenevillesun.com/story/307649
Haiti aid mission uses lessons of war
Haiti aid mission uses lessons of war
By Jim Michaels - USA TODAY
Posted : Monday Jan 18, 2010 6:53:51 EST
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — This is not war, this overwhelming humanitarian effort. But after eight years of dealing with counterinsurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, the lessons learned there — getting into the communities to understand the people’s needs — apply here to the job of distributing food and water and providing medical help.
“Those skills are transferable,” said Army Col. Chris Gibson, commander of the brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division that is getting established here.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers and Marines have learned to seek out local leaders and learn gritty details about sewage, electricity and water. They’re doing the same thing here, but no one is shooting at them.
Lt. Col. Mike Foster’s unit established a position at the Pétionville Club, adjacent to more than 10,000 refugees living on its golf course.
Families are lying on the ground, shielded from the sun by sheets or blankets held up by wooden poles. Some are injured and waiting for medical help. Most are waiting for adequate food and water.
read more here
Haiti aid mission uses lessons of war
By Jim Michaels - USA TODAY
Posted : Monday Jan 18, 2010 6:53:51 EST
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — This is not war, this overwhelming humanitarian effort. But after eight years of dealing with counterinsurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, the lessons learned there — getting into the communities to understand the people’s needs — apply here to the job of distributing food and water and providing medical help.
“Those skills are transferable,” said Army Col. Chris Gibson, commander of the brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division that is getting established here.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers and Marines have learned to seek out local leaders and learn gritty details about sewage, electricity and water. They’re doing the same thing here, but no one is shooting at them.
Lt. Col. Mike Foster’s unit established a position at the Pétionville Club, adjacent to more than 10,000 refugees living on its golf course.
Families are lying on the ground, shielded from the sun by sheets or blankets held up by wooden poles. Some are injured and waiting for medical help. Most are waiting for adequate food and water.
read more here
Haiti aid mission uses lessons of war
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