Fort Hood Soldier From Virginia Found Dead

Death of a Fort Hood Soldier: Sgt. 1st Class Keith Robert Tucker 
DVIDS
December 18, 2014

FORT HOOD, Texas - Fort Hood officials have released the name of a Soldier who was found unresponsive at his off-post residence in Killeen, Texas, Dec. 16.

He was pronounced deceased by Bell County Justice of the Peace Bill Cooke. Sgt. 1st Class Keith Robert Tucker, 37, whose home of record is listed as Portsmouth, Virginia, entered the military in October 1995 as an infantryman. He arrived at Fort Hood in January 2012 and was assigned to 3rd Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, since December 2014. 

Tucker deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom from October 2005 to September 2006 and from October 2007 to October 2008. read more here

“You served a country, but you don’t mean anything to her.”

Veterans exposed to viruses, claim V.A. avoided responsibility
MSNBC
By Ronan Farrow and Rich Gardella
12/18/14

Inside the V.A.: Colonoscopy claims denied
Five years ago, V.A. hospitals potentially exposed thousands of veterans to potential infections like HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis. Ronan Farrow Daily and the NBC News Investigative Unit report that, for some, that was just the beginning of the nightmare.

John Renegar Jr., wearing a careworn baseball cap emblazed with “101st Airborne”, surveyed his small living room in Smyrna Tennessee and shrugged. “It just makes you think you don’t mean nothin’ to anybody, you know,” the 66 year old Vietnam vet said. “You served a country, but you don’t mean anything to her.”

Renegar is referring to his treatment by the Department of Veteran Affairs. He’s one of thousands of veterans to receive a bombshell of a letter in 2009 – warning them that they may have been exposed to life-threatening infections as a result of misconfigured or unclean colonoscopy equipment. He’s also one of a smaller group to subsequently test positive for a serious infection – in his case, chronic hepatitis that will leave him at risk for life-threatening liver damage for the rest of his life.

But Renegar was just as shaken by his treatment after the infection – with the V.A. ignoring his concerns, denying his claims, and eventually fighting him in court.

Documents obtained by NBC News show he is not alone – in fact, the agency has quietly rejected most of the medical malpractice claims associated with the botched colonoscopies.

Reneger said he believes he contracted his case of hepatitis during a colonoscopy at the V.A.’s Alvin C. York Medical Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on Oct. 30, 2003. “You know you’ve lived a clean life and hadn’t done any kind of drugs or … been running around on my wife or anything,” he said. “… I don’t know of anywhere else I could have got it.” He was among 6,387 patients deemed at risk after procedures at that facility between April 23, 2003 and Dec. 1, 2008
read more here


VA says 3 positive HIV tests from follow-ups

Nearly 11,000 could have been exposed to HIV as 5th case is linked
5th HIV Case Linked To VA Equipment

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- A fifth patient has tested positive for HIV, and seven more have tested positive for hepatitis after being exposed to contaminated medical equipment at three Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, the agency said Friday.

That brings the total who have tested positive for hepatitis to 33.

They are among thousands tested because they were treated with endoscopic equipment that wasn't properly sterilized between patients and exposed them to the body fluids of others. The equipment is often used in colonoscopies and ear, nose and throat procedures.

Nearly 11,000 former sailors, soldiers, airmen and Marines could have been exposed at the hospitals in Miami, Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Augusta, Ga.

5th HIV Case Linked To VA Equipment

Related Stories:
April 24, 2009: VA Reports 4th HIV Case
March 26, 2009: 10 VA Patients Have Viral Infections
March 11, 2009: VA Denies Hepatitis Results
January 8, 2009: Valve Problem Cited In Colonoscopy Issue
January 8, 2009: VA Volunteer Calls Hospital Tools Dirty

Stolen Valor: Man Can't Prove Super Secret Special Forces Team

He claims PTSD and faced off with police while armed yet he survived.

Military service claim by man in standoff still unproven
Herald Washington
By Diana Hefley, Herald Writer
December 18, 2014

EVERETT — A Snohomish man could face jail time if he can't convince a Snohomish County judge that he has delved into the accuracy of his claimed military experiences as part of his court-ordered mental health treatment.

Superior Court Judge Michael Downes said Wednesday that he hasn't received sufficient records documenting that Tyler Gaffney is getting to the bottom of whether he has been truthful about his military service in the U.S. Army.

Downes in January sentenced Gaffney to six months in jail for a Sept. 29, 2013, incident that involved a standoff with Snohomish County sheriff's deputies. Gaffney assaulted his father and threatened to blow up and shoot police.

He confronted deputies, armed with a Airsoft gun that resembled a M-4, an assault rifle widely used by the U.S. military. Deputies used less-than-lethal ammunition to subdue him.

Gaffney later told detectives that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder because of his combat experiences. He claimed that “he was a member of a super-secret Special Forces team,” who served in clandestine combat missions and had been awarded medals for his bravery.

The detectives, who both served in the military, reported that many of Gaffney's combat stories followed the plots of popular war movies. Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Paul Stern raised concerns about “stolen valor.”
read more here

Georgia National Guard Soldiers home in time for Christmas

Georgia National Guard soldiers return from Afghanistan deployment in time for holidays
Associated Press
By Russ Bynum
Thursday, Dec. 18, 2014

RUSS BYNUM/ASSOCIATED PRESS Staff Sgt. Christopher Reynolds of the Georgia National Guard hugs his wife, Colleen Reynolds, at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, after returning from Afghanistan.

The Georgia National Guard said this is the first holiday season since 9/11 that none of its units will be deployed, though about 40 individual soldiers remain overseas assisting units from other states. Georgia began sending its citizen-soldiers to Afghanistan in November 2001.

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Chief Warrant Officer 4 Duane Sandbothe returned from a deployment to Afghanistan on Thursday with plans to keep his holiday homecoming a secret from his 8-year-old son for a full week. “He’s supposed to ask Santa Claus to get me home for Christmas,” said Sandbothe, 41, of Savannah, after his parents and other family members greeted him at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah. They plan to help him lay low until he can surprise his son.

Sandbothe was among 61 citizen-soldiers of the Georgia National Guard coming back from a 10-month deployment exactly a week before Christmas. Another 60 members – the 1st Battalion, 169th General Support Aviation Battalion – were headed home to Alabama, which shares the unit’s B Company with Georgia. read more here

Now Congress Thinks Military Suicides Are Caused by Money Problems?

OMG! Congress spends more money on
suicide prevention with "financial planners"

Landmark Military Suicide Prevention Study Approved by Congress 
Financial Planning
Ann Marshi
December 17, 2014

The $1 million cost of the study "is like pocket change in terms of the Department of Defense's budget," she says. "When are the servicemembers going to get the help they deserve?"

Tucked into the $1.1 trillion spending package just approved by Congress is a little-noticed provision for a study into connections between financial stress and the military suicide epidemic – legislation advocates believe represents a vital step forward in achieving more effective financial planning interventions for soldiers and veterans.

Prompted by a Financial Planning investigation, the measure sponsored by Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) directs the Pentagon to analyze financial stress as a main precipitating factor to military suicide; other leading factors are mental illness and post-traumatic stress disorder, marital problems and substance abuse. "This may be exactly what's needed to jumpstart attention to this issue," says former U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Stephen Xenakis, an M.D. who spoke out in support of the bill.

"It may trigger more attention to get people to start recognizing that they need to take care of this issue for their soldiers and veterans." read more here