Veterans Service Officer Slept with Weapon in Iraq

Veterans Service Officer Kathy Marshik slept with her weapon
Morrison County Record
By Jim Wright, Correspondent
December 29, 2014

In June, the Morrison County Veterans Service (MCVS) Office got new leadership, after the retirement of 27-year director Paul Froncak. And the new leader has been around.

“I slept with my weapon,” Kathy Marshik said while recalling her time in Kuwait and Iraq. She carried that M-16 all the time, she said, during her 15-month deployment with the 142nd Engineer Company, out of Camp Ripley, during the heat of the 2003-2004 occupation of Iraq.

In the meantime, she was 5,000 miles away from her daughters, Sierra and Brianna, ages 6 and 2 then.

“My husband, Glen, was in shock when I told him I was deploying in a few days; and five days later I was gone,” Marshik said, “The worst day of my life was leaving them.”

She was a construction engineer supervisor during her time at bases near Udairi, Kuwait and Balad, Iraq. She was never directly fired upon, but her base was constantly being mortared, she said. Her other military occupation skills were maintenance parts specialist and combat medic.
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Marine Shocks Great-Grandma for Christmas

VIDEO: NJ MARINE SURPRISES GREAT-GRANDMOTHER FOR CHRISTMAS
ABC 6 News
December 28, 2014

DELANCO, N.J. (WPVI) -- A marine from Delanco, New Jersey gave his 94-year-old grandmother the surprise of her life when he came home for Christmas.

The McFadden's knew their marine son would be home for the holidays but his great-grandmother Dee-Dee didn't.
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Veteran Reduced to Tears After 50 Fight to Have VA Honor Claim

If you remember all the reports of veterans waiting too long for claims to be approved, most of the focus was on OEF and OIF veterans, but here's yet one more reminder, they are not the first group of veterans to be forced to fight.

After 50 years, injured veteran is still fighting
Tulsa World
BY MICHAEL OVERALL
World Staff Writer
December 29, 2014

After 50 years, the VA admitted that his injury was caused by a training accident. And the VA agreed to provide medical treatment.

Bell pulled over on the side of the road, put his hands over his face, and for the next several minutes, sobbed uncontrollably.

David Bell, of Tulsa, talks about his ordeal with Veteran's Affairs while visiting friends at Dan Howard's business at Richard Lloyd Jones Jr. Airport on Dec. 4, 2014. Bell was injured during a training accident at Ft. Sill back in 1964 and spent the next 50 years trying to get treatment from the Department of Veterans affairs.
JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World

A 105-mm Howitzer weighs 4,980 pounds, supported by two long arms that stretch out in a V-shape behind the canon. Each arm — or "trail," as the Army prefers to call it — is as heavy as a rodeo bull, enough to snap a human spine like a twig.

It takes four men, grunting and grimacing from the exertion, to lift each trail and reposition the weapon.

On a spring day in 1964, three soldiers lost their grip.

"Everybody was cutting up and playing around," as David Bell remembers the incident. "And the other guys just dropped it."

He was a young private fresh out of boot camp and learning his way around a Howitzer at Fort Sill, 80 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.

The trail landed across his legs and lower back, trapping him underneath. His spine began to burn, as if his vertebrae had turned into hot coals under his skin. The other soldiers quickly lifted the weight off of him, and Bell walked away from the accident. But for the past 50 years — literally every waking moment since it happened, he says — he has been in pain.

Some days are better than others. And on the best days, he can almost — almost — forget that his back hurts. But other days — the majority of days — he can hardly think about anything else.

The back pain, however, isn't what bothers him the most.

"No," he says, fists clenched and jaw trembling with anger. "You know what really hurts? What really hurts me deep down?

The first letter is dated Aug. 2, 1965.

"I will certainly be glad to help you in every way I can," it says. Signed: Page Belcher, member of Congress.

It came in reply to a July 22 request from Bell, asking for the Tulsa congressman's help with his first appeal to the Veterans Administration. Since then, Bell has accumulated a stack of similar letters several inches thick.

April 25, 1979. Signed: Congressman James Jones.
April 3, 1980. Signed: Sen. David Boren.
Dec. 19, 2008. Signed: Sen. James Inhofe.
Feb. 20, 2013. Signed: U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine.

Bell has correspondence from every U.S. representative and senator elected in Oklahoma over the last five decades, plus eight separate White House administrations. And for him, every letter is just another broken promise.

"They all say, 'We want to help.' But nobody ever does anything."

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Clock ticking on Ohio Veterans

WEDNESDAY IS DEADLINE FOR IRAQ WAR VETERANS TO CLAIM STATE BONUSES
Review Capital Bureau
By MARC KOVAC
Published: December 29, 2014

COLUMBUS -- The state has paid out more than $68 million to veterans of recent and ongoing military conflicts, thanks to voter-approved bonuses OK'd five years ago.

A total of 84,464 military men and women have received the payments to date, according to the latest tally by the Ohio Department of Veterans Services. The total includes more than 24,000 Ohioans who served during conflicts in Iraq.

In November 2009, voters signed off on a constitutional amendment allowing the state to borrow up to $200 million to pay cash bonuses to Ohio military men and women who served at least 90 days of active duty in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq in current conflicts in those areas, plus those involved in Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s.

Eligible veterans are being paid $100 for each month, up to $1,000, for time served in those areas or $50 a month, up to $500, for those serving in other locations at the time. Families of veterans who died in action are eligible for a $5,000 death benefit.

Similar cash bonuses were approved by voters and paid to veterans of other wars and conflicts, dating back to the Civil War, though the deadline for those payments has long since passed.

Persian Gulf War-era veterans had to apply for bonuses by the end of last year. Veterans who served during the most recent Iraqi conflict (between March 19, 2003, and Dec. 31, 2011) have until Wednesday to apply, while there has been no deadline set yet for those who have served during conflicts in Afghanistan.
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Soldier in custody after firing gun at Lewis-McChord

Soldier fires shots in air at Lewis McChord
Associated Press
December 28, 2014

A soldier at JBLM is in custody after firing several shots into the air from a parking lot on base.

Soldier is in custody after shots were fired at JBLM early Sunday morning.

(Photo: Doug Dillon, KING 5 News)

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. - A soldier assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord fired several shots into the air from a parking lot early Sunday.

Law enforcement at the base cordoned off the area after the incident at about 4:30 a.m. Law enforcement agencies from Pierce County assisted.

The public affairs office says the soldier was taken into custody at about 5:45 a.m.

No injuries were reported.
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