Fort Bragg Soldier Stands Trial For Drowning 8-month-old Puppy

Soldier accused of drowning puppy to hire lawyer, return to court Feb. 12
Fayetteville Observer
By Paul Woolverton
Staff writer
Jan 24, 2015.

Staff photo by Babette Augustin

As two animal protection advocates watched, a Fort Bragg soldier accused of felony cruelty to animals for the drowning of an 8-month-old puppy in Fayetteville made his first court appearance Friday.

A first appearance is where a defendant is formally told the crime he is accused of and the maximum potential punishment. He also is asked whether he plans to hire a lawyer, seek a court-appointed lawyer or represent himself as the case proceeds.

The soldier, Spc. John Garrett Burrow, 22, was arrested this week by the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office along with his wife, Kelsey Caroline Burrow, 20. Kelsey Burrow is charged with misdemeanor accessory after the fact.

The drowning of the dog, named Riley, has drawn outrage from many.

John Burrow is accused of tying the puppy's feet to its nose with a military parachute cord and throwing it into McFadyen Lake, about a quarter-mile from the couple's west Fayetteville home. The dog's body was found Jan. 2.
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Community Supports Homeless Veteran After Being Set on Fire

Ventura Residents Rally Around Homeless Veteran Lit on Fire at Beach Amid Search for Assailants
KTLA News
BY TRACY BLOOM AND SARA WELCH
JANUARY 20, 2015

Those who knew Frazier believed he was a veteran who moved from New Mexico about six months ago and had been staying at the beach ever since.

Messages of support and encouragement have been left at the spot where the 58-year-old man was brutally attacked on Jan. 17, 2015. (Credit: KTLA)

The life of a homeless man who suffered serious burns when he was doused in lighter fluid and set on fire as he slept on a Ventura beach over the weekend was saved by the quick-thinking actions of a passerby, who extinguished the flames before calling for help.

The unidentified man happened to be near Pierpont Beach at South Seaward Avenue around 11 p.m. Sunday when 58-year-old John Frazier was attacked by three men, according to a news release from the Ventura Police Department. He dialed 911 after putting out the blaze.

Doug Kern walked by moments after the man used sand to put out the fire, which has engulfed Frazier in flames of up to 6-feet high.
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Marines, Left Behind By Psychological Mumbo Jumbo

"New top Marine Corps general releases plan to shake up the service" in the Washington Times report by Dan Lamorthe had this piece of information in it from Marine Corps Commandant General Joseph F. Dunford Jr.

Dunford also calls for changes at home. While attending boot camp “changes a person forever,” he said, the service should explore adopting new psychological testing for recruits to make sure they are capable of not only becoming a Marine, but successfully completing their time in service. “We will quickly assess the efficacy of available psychological screening tools currently used by special operations forces, law enforcement organizations, and industry,” the general said.

“The end state is to enhance the quality and resilience of the force – thereby making us more combat ready.”

There is a PDF of what the General thinks.

"The term Marine is synonymous with young men and women who are disciplined, smart, physically and mentally tough, and who remain always faithful to each other and to our Corps."

RAND Corp did research on this resilience theory and the difference between what the leadership was told would work up against what actually happened.

"An important distinction between approaches to promote resilience, as compared with traditional medical interventions,is the emphasis on prevention as opposed to treatment.

The research on psychological resilience has not been in a form that can be used easily by the military to identify which factors are informed by scientific evidence.

Prior to Department of Defense budget cut talks, the Marine Corps planned to reduce troops from 202,000 to 186,800 to accommodate a post-war Marine Corps. Due to budget changes and the planned withdrawal from Afghanistan, however, that number has been cut to 182,100 Marines, reducing the ranks by 19,900 men and women.

The force reduction will take place over the next four years. The Marine Corps will reduce its active-duty strength by about 5,000 Marines per year from across the Marine Air-Ground Task Force.

Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James F. Amos has stressed that the resulting force of 182,100 Marines will retain the capacity and capability to support current and possible crisis response operations through rotational deployments.

Less serving but suicide numbers not down enough to account for the reduction. This came out in June of 2014 on Marine Corps Times

According to the 2014 data, there have been 70 confirmed and suspected suicides by Army soldiers; 34 by airmen, 21 by Marines and 36 by sailors. In the same time frame last year, there were 81 suicides by soldiers, 24 by airmen, 25 by Marines and 24 by sailors.

The total number for 2014 so far — 161 — is still sharply lower than the 200 reported by this time in 2012.

Enough said about "resilience" training? Hardly, because this does not include the veterans who were discharged and no longer counted by the military.

The latest release of information on Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is that the rate of them committing suicide is triple their civilian peer rate.

This is nothing more than psychological mumbo jumbo!

Military Suicides "Incomprehensible and Unacceptable"

Medal of Honor recipients motivate MARSOC Marines, sailors 
DVIDS
U.S. Marine Corps Forces
Special Operations Command
Story by Lance Cpl. Steven Fox
January 20, 2015

“Many think the proudest moment of my life was when I received the Medal of Honor,” said Dix. “Certainly, that was a highlight of my life, but the proudest moments are when I get invited to personally thank those who continue to serve this country.”

Medal of Honor recipient U.S. Army Retired Major Drew Dennis Dix, Speaks to members of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, aboard Camp Lejeune, N.C., on January 20, 2015. Maj Dix, is one of only 79 living recipients of the Medal of Honor.
(U.S. Marine Corps Photo by Sgt. Scott A. Achtemeier/Released)

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – Two Medal of Honor recipients visited U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) at Stone Bay, Jan. 20 to speak with Marines and sailors.

Col. Harvey Barnum Jr., USMC (Ret.), and Maj. Drew Dix, U.S. Army (Ret.), both having received Medals of Honor for their heroic actions during the Vietnam War, spoke about bravery and sacrifice, but touched on a myriad of other themes and topics as well.

Barnum and Dix are actively involved in working with wounded warriors and service members suffering from depression. Consequently, both men spoke passionately about suicide prevention and urged the attending Marines and sailors to communicate and seek help when under distress.

“I feel very bad, as a Marine, when we lose a Marine in combat,” said Barnum. “But to lose a Marine through suicide is incomprehensible to me. It’s unacceptable.”
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Carlos Hathcock Vietnam Marine Sniper Legend

When the movie American Sniper came out friends of mine were talking about Carlos Hathcock and how he saved lives in Vietnam. Not enough hours in the day, I never got around to posting about him but thanks to the posting below, here's his story.

This Marine Was The ‘American Sniper’ Of The Vietnam War
We Are The Mighty
BLAKE STILWELL,CONTRIBUTOR
JANUARY 23, 2015

Many American snipers had a bounty on their heads. These were usually worth one or two thousand dollars. The reward for the sniper with the white feather in his bush cap, however, was worth $30,000. 

Carlos Hathcock at work in the fields of Vietnam.
(Photo: U.S. Marine Corps)

Long before Chris Kyle penned “American Sniper,” Carlos Hathcock was already a legend.

He taught himself to shoot as a boy, just like Alvin York and Audie Murphy before him. He had dreamed of being a U.S. Marine his whole life and enlisted in 1959 at just 17 years old. Hathcock was an excellent sharpshooter by then, winning the Wimbledon Cup shooting championship in 1965, the year before he would deploy to Vietnam and change the face of American warfare forever.

He deployed in 1966 as a military policeman, but immediately volunteered for combat and was soon transferred to the 1st Marine Division Sniper Platoon, stationed at Hill 55, South of Da Nang. This is where Hathcock would earn the nickname “White Feather” — because he always wore a white feather on his bush hat, daring the North Vietnamese to spot him — and where he would achieve his status as the Vietnam War’s deadliest sniper in missions that sound like they were pulled from the pages of Marvel comics.

1969, a vehicle Hathcock was riding in struck a landmine and knocked the Marine unconscious. He came to and pulled seven of his fellow Marines from the burning wreckage. He left Vietnam with burns over 40 percent of his body. He received the Silver Star for this action in 1996.
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Obituaries
Carlos Hathcock; Sniper in Vietnam February 28, 1999|JON THURBER | TIMES STAFF WRITER