Army Reservist survived in Afghanistan, killed in Chicago

Man shot, killed months after returning from Afghanistan
by Sean Lewis
Anchor/Reporter

Along the snow covered section of Evergreen Street in East Chicago, gunfire took the life of 25-year-old Willie Cook.

His uncle described his nephew calling him a “great guy.” Cook served in the Army Reserves, returning in September from a tour in Afghanistan and worked as a forklift operator at the ford plant not far from home.

Stephen Parker, Willie’s uncle said he was a “Well-rounded, hardworking guy. He worked. He didn’t’ deserve it.”

An empty parking spot marks where Willie had just pulled up in his car Saturday afternoon outside his grandmother’s home, his 3 year old son Antwan sat in the backseat when someone opened fire.
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Mild traumatic brain injuries linked to troop PTSD, suicide

Mild traumatic brain injuries linked to troop PTSD, suicide
Feb 6, 2013
Written by
Gregg Zoroya
USA TODAY

Concussions or mild traumatic brain injuries inflicted on thousands of U.S. troops who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan may be linked to post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide, according to new research.

Mild TBI, often caused by exposure to makeshift bomb explosions, can be difficult to identify and have lasting effects, according to two studies published in the latest issue of The Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation.

“What these papers say to me is that there is something to TBI, and particularly military TBI, producing specific abnormalities in the brain that lead to more vulnerability to PTSD and to suicide,” says Dan Perl, a neuropathologist and lead investigator at the Pentagon’s brain repository research center.

Suicides in the military increased to record levels last year: There were 349 potential cases in 2012, a 13percent increase over the previous record of 310 suicides in 2009, according to Pentagon data.
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Former soldier with PTSD missing in South Carolina

Missing former soldier with PTSD found

Former soldier with PTSD missing in Upstate
Feb 06, 2013

LIBERTY, S.C. —A man, who is a former member of the military and who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder from active duty, is missing along with his dog, and police are looking for help from the public to find him. Liberty police said 28-year-old Zachary Cain Hedden has been missing since Monday. They said he is considered to be endangered because he left his needed medication at his home. read more here

Congress lack of budget hurting defense

Reminder, Congress writes the Bills and does the spending. They haven't passed a budget in years and it has gotten worse because of it. This is the result.

Budget strains to cut carrier fleet in Gulf to 1
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press
52 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say that budget strains will force the Pentagon to cut its aircraft carrier presence in the Persian Gulf area from two carriers to one.

Officials say Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has formally approved a plan to keep just one carrier in the region. There have been two aircraft carrier groups there for most of the last two years.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the Gulf but was brought home in December for maintenance. It will return later this month, but plans for the USS Harry S. Truman to deploy to the Gulf this week have been canceled.

The officials discussed the cuts on condition of anonymity, because the announcement has not been made.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday laid out a grim list of spending cuts the Pentagon will have to make in the coming weeks that he said will seriously damage the country's economy and degrade the military's ability to respond to a crisis.

Slamming members of Congress as irresponsible, Panetta said lawmakers are willing to push the country off a fiscal cliff to damage their opposing political parties.

He said that if Congress doesn't pass a budget the Pentagon will have to absorb $46 billion in spending reductions in this fiscal year and will face a $35 billion shortfall in operating expenses.

It is pretty extensive compared to what FOX News put out.

Pentagon to cut aircraft carrier presence in Persian Gulf to 1 due to budget strains
Published February 06, 2013
Associated Press
U.S. officials say that budget strains will force the Pentagon to cut its aircraft carrier presence in the Persian Gulf area from two carriers to one.

Officials say Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has formally approved a plan to keep just one carrier in the region. There have been two aircraft carrier groups there for most of the last two years.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the Gulf but was brought home in December for maintenance. It will return later this month, but plans for the USS Harry S. Truman to deploy to the Gulf this week have been canceled.

The officials discussed the cuts on condition of anonymity, because the announcement has not been made.

From Stars and Stripes

Congress inaction on budget could affect raises, benefits for military
By CHRIS CARROLL AND JENNIFER HLAD
Stars and Stripes
Published: February 6, 2013

WASHINGTON — The inability of Congress to pass a federal budget could result in smaller-than-expected pay raises for military troops next year, and if automatic spending cuts are triggered by further gridlock, military benefits could be next on the chopping block.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey will recommend to Congress that pay increases be limited to 1 percent in 2014, rather than the 1.7 percent that was previously approved, a defense official said Wednesday. Pentagon officials say the change would save $470 million in 2014 and more than $3 billion total by 2018.

Congress will decide whether to follow the Pentagon’s recommendation and uncouple next year’s military pay from the Labor Department’s Employment Cost Index, which is related to cost of living, according to a defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Panetta warns of degraded military readiness from spending cuts
By Tom Cohen
CNN
updated 2:14 PM EST, Wed February 6, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: The White House says President Obama has offered compromise
House Speaker Boehner accuses Democrats of avoiding needed spending cuts
Defense Secretary Panetta says political partisanship threatens U.S. stability
The across-the-board cuts will take effect March 1 unless Congress acts
Washington (CNN) -- Furloughed workers, reduced combat readiness, shrunken naval operations and cuts to Air Force flying hours and weapons maintenance.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta listed those consequences as he provided a stark warning on Wednesday about the effects of impending budget cuts on the military unless Congress acts to avert them.

The result, he said, would be "the most serious readiness crisis" faced by the armed services in over a decade.

Panetta's address at Georgetown University, which he called "hopefully one of my last speeches as secretary of defense," included the first details of how the Pentagon would deal with the automatic spending cuts -- or sequestration in congressional jargon -- set to trigger March 1 across federal agencies.

For the Pentagon, sequestration would mean $500 billion in cuts over 10 years. For 2013 alone, some $46 billion in reduced spending would result in "a serious disruption in defense programs and a sharp decline in our military readiness," Panetta said.

96% of violent crimes committed by people with no mental health problems

Time to stop using mental illness as something to blame. Tired of hearing this is all about mentally ill people especially when many want to link murders to PTSD after Chris Kyle was killed by a veteran he was trying to help.

We have hundreds of thousands of diagnosed PTSD veterans and many more still not getting help or the diagnosis but we read about so few of them involved with crimes. We read more about them harming themselves by attempting suicide and too many succeeding at it.

Fox News Inverts Evidence To Link Mental Health With Mass Murder
Media Matters
February 5, 2013
BRIAN THORN

Fox News' Martha MacCallum exaggerated the relationship between mental health and gun violence by suggesting advocates for stronger gun laws focus on the few individuals with mental health conditions who commit mass killings instead of the widely available weapons that they used.

On the February 5 edition of America's Newsroom, MacCallum pushed the debunked myth that mental health is a common variable among violent criminals by listing recent mass shooters. MacCallum highlighted four perpetrators of mass shootings, and said, "You look at the people who've carried out these heinous crimes and killed so many innocent children. ... All of these have mental health issues." MacCallum went on to criticize President Obama for focusing on stronger gun laws rather than mental health in his policy response to the Newtown, CT, mass shooting.

According to the National Journal, "96 percent of violent crimes -- defined by the FBI as murders, robberies, rapes, and aggravated assaults -- are committed by people without any mental-health problems at all." From the National Journal:

Although people with serious mental illness have committed a large percentage of high-profile crimes, the mentally ill represent a very small percentage of the perpetrators of violent crime overall. Researchers estimate that if mental illness could be eliminated as a factor in violent crime, the overall rate would be reduced by only 4 percent. That means 96 percent of violent crimes -- defined by the FBI as murders, robberies, rapes, and aggravated assaults -- are committed by people without any mental-health problems at all. Solutions that focus on reducing crimes by the mentally ill will make only a small dent in the nation's rate of gun-related murders, ranging from mass killings to shootings that claim a single victim.

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