Veteran at center of police standoff hopes treatment of PTSD will help him
NEWS 10 ABC
Feb 25, 2013
Gabriel Roxas
EL DORADO COUNTY, CA - He held sheriff's deputies at bay and forced his neighborhood to be evacuated for hours, but even so, neighbors said their hearts went out to him.
Witnesses say the teen's injury was not serious, but Ramirez's situation is.
Cameras weren't allowed inside the El Dorado County Jail when News10 report Gabriel Roxas sat down with Miguel Ramirez during visiting hours. The Marine veteran, who served in Afghanistan, requested an interview after initially turning down the station's request to talk.
Last week, Ramirez locked himself inside his Cameron Park home after officers responded to a call of an assault with a deadly weapon.
The scene was something neighbor Frances Lopez couldn't have imagined last fall when she first met the man she described as a nice guy.
"My son is also in the military and was over in Afghanistan, so we discussed that a little bit," Lopez recalled.
But as the months passed, Lopez says Ramirez's behavior became more erratic.
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
Soliders will see less training and more cleaning with budget cuts
Soldiers to help maintain posts in money crunch
By Joe Gould
Posted : Monday Feb 25, 2013
Soldiers may find themselves washing windows, cutting grass, manning post gatehouses and doing other jobs they haven’t performed in a generation, under the current budget crunch, according to a top Army official.
As civilians are laid off or furloughed, the Army will have soldiers do their jobs, providing them with less training and fewer services, said Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment.
“What it’s going to mean are shorter operating hours and closed gates,” Hammack said. “It’s going to be inconvenient; it’s going to be longer lines. It’s going to mean you’re going to see soldiers doing things you’ve seen civilians do over the last 10 years. That could be anything from mowing lawns and washing windows to replacing light bulbs.”
Soldiers, instead of training, would be working in maintenance roles because the Army will not otherwise have the money or the manpower. Sustainment, restoration and modernization funding “would have to go away,” Hammack said.
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By Joe Gould
Posted : Monday Feb 25, 2013
Soldiers may find themselves washing windows, cutting grass, manning post gatehouses and doing other jobs they haven’t performed in a generation, under the current budget crunch, according to a top Army official.
As civilians are laid off or furloughed, the Army will have soldiers do their jobs, providing them with less training and fewer services, said Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment.
“What it’s going to mean are shorter operating hours and closed gates,” Hammack said. “It’s going to be inconvenient; it’s going to be longer lines. It’s going to mean you’re going to see soldiers doing things you’ve seen civilians do over the last 10 years. That could be anything from mowing lawns and washing windows to replacing light bulbs.”
Soldiers, instead of training, would be working in maintenance roles because the Army will not otherwise have the money or the manpower. Sustainment, restoration and modernization funding “would have to go away,” Hammack said.
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Suicide in military more tied to PTSD than deployments
This is the headline.
Report: No Link Between Deployment, Suicide in MilitaryNotice what the headline made you think this article was all about? Bet you thought that it just meant they were passing off military suicides.
Young, white men most at riskHere's the section that came after the part they wanted you to read. Notice what is in here and has been linked to suicides.
By JASON KOEBLER
February 22, 2013
The report was published in Armed Forces and Society, a military studies journal, and was written by Army Research Psychologists James Griffith and Mark Vaitkus. "Primary risk factors associated with having committed suicide among the 2007-2010 [National Guard] suicide cases were age (young), gender (male), and race (white)," according to the report. People who fall into that group are also most likely to commit suicide in the general population.Instead of a headline like they used do you think it would have been more important to discuss what the rest of us are talking about? The fact that PTSD has been linked to military suicides? Maybe if they had they would have pointed out that training itself is traumatic for some. You also have to remember that while the rate of PTSD is 30% the redeployments have increased that risk by 50% for each time they are sent back. All in all, yet again another report that proves beyond a doubt what the DOD has been doing to address all of this has left more dead by suicide.
The report found very little relationship between whether a soldier had faced active combat and whether they committed suicide, but the study suggests that problems at home that may be associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder could have an impact on whether a soldier takes his or her own life.
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iPhone killed saving soldier's life
Close Call for Alaska-based Soldier
KTVA.com Story Updated: Feb 15, 2013
ANCHORAGE - On May 14, Joel Stubleski was with his unit in Eastern Afghanistan, the 3-509th out of Fort Richardson, Alaska. His unit was returning from a mission when they heard gunfire.
During the commotion, he felt a strong pressure in his upper thigh. "It knocked me over." He said he didn't feel pain right away. He didn't see blood, so he continued to reload. He'd been hit.
Once he knew what had happened, he took cover and waited. A fellow soldier put the tourniquet he kept in his pocket around his leg. Stubleski waited. While he waited, he thought, "Is this it? If it is, there's nothing I can do -- at least I went out doing what I was supposed to do." He was bleeding and, he said, he started feeling tired. "I kept telling myself, don't close your eyes."
After helicopters picked him up, medics inspected his injuries. They cut off his clothes and went through his pockets. There, they found his iPhone -- with a bullet hole through it. "The medics would come up to me and say, ‘this is the coolest thing I've ever seen.’"
Stubleski wasn't carrying it for calling or texting. He said he used it as a camera or for music. The doctors told him how lucky he was that the bullet didn't hit the femoral artery. They said that the iPhone probably changed the trajectory of the bullet, making the wound shallower in his flesh. The protective cover he had on his phone made it so the glass didn't shatter, making his wounds worse. He and his friends joked they should replace their body armor with iPads.
Even though his injuries could have been worse, they were bad enough to cut his deployment short. He came back after his injury. His battle buddies didn't return until the fall. He said keeping up with them on Facebook helped lift his spirits during his recovery.
read more here linked from Boing Boing
KTVA.com Story Updated: Feb 15, 2013
ANCHORAGE - On May 14, Joel Stubleski was with his unit in Eastern Afghanistan, the 3-509th out of Fort Richardson, Alaska. His unit was returning from a mission when they heard gunfire.
During the commotion, he felt a strong pressure in his upper thigh. "It knocked me over." He said he didn't feel pain right away. He didn't see blood, so he continued to reload. He'd been hit.
Once he knew what had happened, he took cover and waited. A fellow soldier put the tourniquet he kept in his pocket around his leg. Stubleski waited. While he waited, he thought, "Is this it? If it is, there's nothing I can do -- at least I went out doing what I was supposed to do." He was bleeding and, he said, he started feeling tired. "I kept telling myself, don't close your eyes."
After helicopters picked him up, medics inspected his injuries. They cut off his clothes and went through his pockets. There, they found his iPhone -- with a bullet hole through it. "The medics would come up to me and say, ‘this is the coolest thing I've ever seen.’"
Stubleski wasn't carrying it for calling or texting. He said he used it as a camera or for music. The doctors told him how lucky he was that the bullet didn't hit the femoral artery. They said that the iPhone probably changed the trajectory of the bullet, making the wound shallower in his flesh. The protective cover he had on his phone made it so the glass didn't shatter, making his wounds worse. He and his friends joked they should replace their body armor with iPads.
Even though his injuries could have been worse, they were bad enough to cut his deployment short. He came back after his injury. His battle buddies didn't return until the fall. He said keeping up with them on Facebook helped lift his spirits during his recovery.
read more here linked from Boing Boing
Fort Riley soldier died of gunshot wound
Ft. Riley Soldier Dies From Single Gunshot
WIBW News
JUNCTION CITY, Kan. (WIBW) - A Ft. Riley soldier is dead after suffering a single gun shot in Junction City early Saturday morning.
Junction City Police were called to 311 W. 8th Apt. #2 just after 1:30 a.m. in reference to a subject suffering from a gunshot wound.
Upon arrival, officers located a 22-year-old Ft. Riley soldier suffering from a single gunshot.
He was transported to Geary Community Hospital and was later pronounced dead.
An autopsy has be scheduled. His identity is not being released at this time, pending notification of next of kin.
The investigation is ongoing but police say the incident does not appear to be criminal in nature.
WIBW News
JUNCTION CITY, Kan. (WIBW) - A Ft. Riley soldier is dead after suffering a single gun shot in Junction City early Saturday morning.
Junction City Police were called to 311 W. 8th Apt. #2 just after 1:30 a.m. in reference to a subject suffering from a gunshot wound.
Upon arrival, officers located a 22-year-old Ft. Riley soldier suffering from a single gunshot.
He was transported to Geary Community Hospital and was later pronounced dead.
An autopsy has be scheduled. His identity is not being released at this time, pending notification of next of kin.
The investigation is ongoing but police say the incident does not appear to be criminal in nature.
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