Gay colonel recalls ‘don’t ask’ investigation
Marine Corps Times
By Rick Maze
Staff writer
Posted : Friday Mar 1, 2013
An Army colonel retiring April 30 after 26 years of service said the nine years he spent living with the possibility of separation for admitting he was gay was something that he “wouldn’t wish … on anybody.”
“It was a miserable experience,” said Col. Gary Espinas, whose final military assignment is as an instructor at the prestigious Naval Postgraduate School in Monterrey, Calif. In retirement, Espinas will be director of chapter and membership services for OutServe-SLDN, a newly created position in the new joint organization that includes the division that gave him legal support when he faced the possible end of his career in 2003.
Espinas, a career foreign area officer and Russian specialist, was a major at the time, assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, when a State Department security officer questioned him about his list of local contacts, which included only men.
“I had a wide network of Russian friends,” Espinas said. “All of the contacts were men.”
The embassy security officer asked a direct question about whether Espinas was gay. “I knew lying was not a good option,” he said. “I responded I was, in fact, gay.”
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also
Closeted gay soldiers more likely to attempt suicide
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Fort Hood shooter may take plea deal
Fort Hood suspect must describe shooting rampage if he pleads guilty to lesser charges
Published March 01, 2013
Associated Press
FORT HOOD, Texas – More than three years after the deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood, an Army psychiatrist may soon describe details of the terrifying attack for the first time, if he's allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges.
Maj. Nidal Hasan would be required to describe his actions and answer questions about the Nov. 5, 2009, attack on the Texas Army post if the judge allows him to plead guilty to the lesser charges, as his attorneys have said he wants to do.
Any plea, which could happen at the next hearing in March, won't stop the much-anticipated court-martial set to begin May 29. He faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder.
Under military law, a judge can't accept a guilty plea for charges that carry the death penalty. Hasan's lawyers have said he is ready to plead guilty to charges of unpremeditated murder, which don't carry a possible death sentence, as well as the 32 attempted premeditated murder charges he faces.
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Published March 01, 2013
Associated Press
FORT HOOD, Texas – More than three years after the deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood, an Army psychiatrist may soon describe details of the terrifying attack for the first time, if he's allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges.
Maj. Nidal Hasan would be required to describe his actions and answer questions about the Nov. 5, 2009, attack on the Texas Army post if the judge allows him to plead guilty to the lesser charges, as his attorneys have said he wants to do.
Any plea, which could happen at the next hearing in March, won't stop the much-anticipated court-martial set to begin May 29. He faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder.
Under military law, a judge can't accept a guilty plea for charges that carry the death penalty. Hasan's lawyers have said he is ready to plead guilty to charges of unpremeditated murder, which don't carry a possible death sentence, as well as the 32 attempted premeditated murder charges he faces.
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Fort Hood cuts could hit training and operations
Fort Hood cuts could hit training and operations, lead to civilian furloughs
By Juan Castillo
American-Statesman Staff
March 1, 2013
FORT HOOD — More than 5,200 civilian workers at Fort Hood face possible furloughs, and operations and training would be reduced at the Army post under deep, across-the-board federal spending cuts that President Barack Obama authorized Friday night.
The spending cuts won’t affect uniformed soldiers, however, because military personnel are exempt, as are Social Security and Medicare.
The realities of the cuts, known as sequestration, came into focus as the president, who opposed the spending cuts, signed the order putting them into effect Friday night after Congress failed to reach a deal to stave them off.
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What is Wounded Times?
What is Wounded Times?
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
March 2, 2013
Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with a lawyer looking for some more information on a story he found on Wounded Times. I told him what he wanted to know and when I thought he was ready to hang up, he asked me what this blog was all about. I figured it was a good time to remind people in case they forgot.
Everyone knows about Stars and Stripes, Army Times, Marine Corps Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Military.com but while these sites are really great, they don't cover everything and too many news reports end up getting lost under the big news stories. That's just the way it is.
When I started out in the 90's working online, I had to search for too many hours doing research on PTSD but these searches ended up linking me to story after story about veterans I wouldn't have known otherwise. I decided to do something about it. Wounded Times is the latest in a series of blogs and websites I started but this one is the most successful.
This one started out because I received an email from a Marine telling me he was always in my old blog because he wanted to know about PTSD but didn't want to read my "political crap" looking for reports. I was a hothead back then. Couldn't help it. While today we're reading that the Iraq War ended up benefitting Iran, most of the people I know knew that already. To me, sending the troops into combat demanded our attention but too few were thinking beyond the rhetoric. Anyway, the Marine was in Iraq and I shamefully defended my right to use my free speech and post what I wanted. Yep, I hit the roof on him. He responded back with a very short question. "Are you doing this for yourself or us?" I cried. He was right. I started out wanting to do something for them and ended up doing it for my own ego. I fell into the same political minefield everyone else was in. I promised him that I would start another blog that would not be political. I kept that promise.
There is enough publications online with an agenda owing something to some company for financial support. I owe nothing to no one except the men and women serving this country today and those who came before them. Plain and simple, they are my agenda.
I am independent of corporations and politicians so that I can post what is real. Democrats think I am a Republican because of all the posts about how much Washington is doing wrong and Republicans think I'm a Democrat because most of the time I complain about the same thing, but the truth is still the truth and the shameful fact is, the troops and our veterans deserve so much more than what they are getting.
They deserve the truth from us and to know what is going on. When you read their stories as much as I do it is obvious they don't think much about the politics behind what got them deployed into combat. They have a lot more important things on their minds like staying alive and making sure their buddies get home too. None of them ask "are you a Democrat or Republican" before they will use their own bodies to shield another soldier or pull them to safety.
Wounded Times is about the troops and veterans, especially those wounded by Combat and PTSD. Families don't know what to do to help and the troops get the wrong messages from their leaders because they get bamboozled by corporations and researchers giving them the wrong information. Most mainstream reporters are just as culpable. They fail to learn the facts so when they get assigned a story, they believe whatever they are told with absolutely no follow-up questions. That's how we ended up with the wrong information on military suicides from 2012 and worse, no one being held accountable for them.
They have the power of well funded publicity but while that power came with the obligation to report facts, they didn't even hold themselves accountable.
In 1982 when I started out researching PTSD I thought all that had to be done was to get this secret inner combat out in the open, never once thinking 30 years later I'd still be trying to do that.
I told a friend the other day that I was tired of feeling ashamed. He couldn't believe I said that. When you consider how long I've been doing this people finding my work by the accident of a Google search is pretty pitiful. When you factor in 12-14 hours days 7 days a week without a paycheck, that is about as bad as it gets.
The ads you see on here are from Google and I don't owe them anything. Honestly considering how little I make off them, I rather see them gone but in order to do that, readers have to kick in some funds and then I'd know if what I do is of value to them or not. So far that hasn't happened and even begging didn't work. The more time I spent asking for money the less time I had to do this work and the less time I had to help families get through this.
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
March 2, 2013
Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with a lawyer looking for some more information on a story he found on Wounded Times. I told him what he wanted to know and when I thought he was ready to hang up, he asked me what this blog was all about. I figured it was a good time to remind people in case they forgot.
Everyone knows about Stars and Stripes, Army Times, Marine Corps Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Military.com but while these sites are really great, they don't cover everything and too many news reports end up getting lost under the big news stories. That's just the way it is.
When I started out in the 90's working online, I had to search for too many hours doing research on PTSD but these searches ended up linking me to story after story about veterans I wouldn't have known otherwise. I decided to do something about it. Wounded Times is the latest in a series of blogs and websites I started but this one is the most successful.
This one started out because I received an email from a Marine telling me he was always in my old blog because he wanted to know about PTSD but didn't want to read my "political crap" looking for reports. I was a hothead back then. Couldn't help it. While today we're reading that the Iraq War ended up benefitting Iran, most of the people I know knew that already. To me, sending the troops into combat demanded our attention but too few were thinking beyond the rhetoric. Anyway, the Marine was in Iraq and I shamefully defended my right to use my free speech and post what I wanted. Yep, I hit the roof on him. He responded back with a very short question. "Are you doing this for yourself or us?" I cried. He was right. I started out wanting to do something for them and ended up doing it for my own ego. I fell into the same political minefield everyone else was in. I promised him that I would start another blog that would not be political. I kept that promise.
There is enough publications online with an agenda owing something to some company for financial support. I owe nothing to no one except the men and women serving this country today and those who came before them. Plain and simple, they are my agenda.
I am independent of corporations and politicians so that I can post what is real. Democrats think I am a Republican because of all the posts about how much Washington is doing wrong and Republicans think I'm a Democrat because most of the time I complain about the same thing, but the truth is still the truth and the shameful fact is, the troops and our veterans deserve so much more than what they are getting.
They deserve the truth from us and to know what is going on. When you read their stories as much as I do it is obvious they don't think much about the politics behind what got them deployed into combat. They have a lot more important things on their minds like staying alive and making sure their buddies get home too. None of them ask "are you a Democrat or Republican" before they will use their own bodies to shield another soldier or pull them to safety.
Wounded Times is about the troops and veterans, especially those wounded by Combat and PTSD. Families don't know what to do to help and the troops get the wrong messages from their leaders because they get bamboozled by corporations and researchers giving them the wrong information. Most mainstream reporters are just as culpable. They fail to learn the facts so when they get assigned a story, they believe whatever they are told with absolutely no follow-up questions. That's how we ended up with the wrong information on military suicides from 2012 and worse, no one being held accountable for them.
They have the power of well funded publicity but while that power came with the obligation to report facts, they didn't even hold themselves accountable.
In 1982 when I started out researching PTSD I thought all that had to be done was to get this secret inner combat out in the open, never once thinking 30 years later I'd still be trying to do that.
I told a friend the other day that I was tired of feeling ashamed. He couldn't believe I said that. When you consider how long I've been doing this people finding my work by the accident of a Google search is pretty pitiful. When you factor in 12-14 hours days 7 days a week without a paycheck, that is about as bad as it gets.
The ads you see on here are from Google and I don't owe them anything. Honestly considering how little I make off them, I rather see them gone but in order to do that, readers have to kick in some funds and then I'd know if what I do is of value to them or not. So far that hasn't happened and even begging didn't work. The more time I spent asking for money the less time I had to do this work and the less time I had to help families get through this.
Veteran Gets Dying Wish To Walk Deck Of Old Ship
Veteran Gets Dying Wish To Walk Deck Of Old Ship
CBS Charlotte
March 1, 2013
MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (AP) — Korean War veteran Gerald Bowman gamely walked up the gangplank to board the ship he had not seen in almost six decades. The 82-year-old is suffering from congestive heart failure with only about a year to live and his dying wish was to walk the decks of the USS Laffey on which he served four years, including three tours off Korea.
Wearing a USS Laffey hat, he led reporters through the ship at the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum on Charleston Harbor Friday, stopping by his old bunk and then into the engine room where as a machinist mate he worked, sometimes in sweltering temperatures of more than 120 degrees.
He choked up and paused when asked how it felt to be back.
“I just wanted to come back and see actually what happened to me in my early 20s,” the Elkins, Ark., man said. “I think the bottom line was the four years changed me. I was a different person when I left.”
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CBS Charlotte
March 1, 2013
MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (AP) — Korean War veteran Gerald Bowman gamely walked up the gangplank to board the ship he had not seen in almost six decades. The 82-year-old is suffering from congestive heart failure with only about a year to live and his dying wish was to walk the decks of the USS Laffey on which he served four years, including three tours off Korea.
Wearing a USS Laffey hat, he led reporters through the ship at the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum on Charleston Harbor Friday, stopping by his old bunk and then into the engine room where as a machinist mate he worked, sometimes in sweltering temperatures of more than 120 degrees.
He choked up and paused when asked how it felt to be back.
“I just wanted to come back and see actually what happened to me in my early 20s,” the Elkins, Ark., man said. “I think the bottom line was the four years changed me. I was a different person when I left.”
read more here
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