Foster a future hero: Military pups bred in SA may need your help
KENS
Alicia Neaves
May 03, 2016
100 dogs born in the 341st Training Squadron Military Working Dog Breeding Program each year are destined for a life of service.
SAN ANTONIO -- Military working dogs responsible for saving the lives of our military members are bred and trained in San Antonio.
The biggest challenge for the breeding program is finding enough foster families to socialize the puppies before their official training begins.
KENS 5 stopped by JBSA-Lackland to learn more on has more on how you can help raise the Belgian Malinois puppies that go on to serve our country.
"These guys are like regular dogs on about 11 Red Bulls," said Tracy Cann, a foster consultant at JBSA-Lackland.
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Standoff Ends Peacefully after Four Hours
KAGS
May 02, 2016
UPDATE -- The man in the home surrendered Monday afternoon after four hours of negotiations.
The man in the home is a Fort Hood soldier.
No word on what, if any, charges the man will face.
KILLEEN -- Police and SWAT team are working a standoff situation at a residence in Killeen.
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American killed in Iraq after ISIS broke through Peshmerga lines
CNN
By Barbara Starr and Jeremy Diamond
May 3, 2016
(CNN)An American service member was killed in Iraq as a result of enemy fire about thirty kilometers north of Mosul, Pentagon officials confirmed Tuesday.
The service member was a Navy SEAL, a U.S. defense official told CNN, though the SEAL's rank is still unclear.
The person was an adviser to Kurdish Peshmerga forces that are fighting ISIS and was killed during an ISIS assault "on a Peshmerga position approximately three to five kilometers behind the forward line of troops," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Tuesday in a statement.
The Pentagon will provide additional information on the service member's identity after next of kin have been notified.
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Police release name of Special Forces soldier in barricade at National Guard armory
The Baltimore Sun
Ian Duncan
May 3, 2016
(XXXXXX) turned out to be unarmed and did not have access to the weapons, which were locked with a code, a police spokeswoman said. He eventually agreed to come out of the building and was sent for a medical evaluation.
Baltimore County police released the name of the Special Forces soldier who is accused of trespassing at an armory in Glen Arm on Monday.
(XXXXXX) 43, of Virginia, allegedly tripped an alarm at the Gunpowder Military Reservation at about 11 a.m. Monday, starting a standoff with heavily armed police that lasted several hours.
He was taken into custody without incident and released on $7,500 bail, online court records show. He could not be reached for comment on Thursday, and had no attorney listed in online records.
Police responded in force to the facility on Notchcliff Road, unsure if (XXXXXX) had access to the weapons stored there.
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**Name removed**
Sometimes I am sure I should have just come home from work and taken a nap instead of reading some of the articles I am sent. After this one, I need a good stiff drink first and then maybe a nap.
An Ex-Marine Killed Two People in Cold Blood. Should His PTSD Keep Him From Death Row? "We are sending to war the most proficient and lethal killers in our nation’s history." Mother Jones, By AJ Vicens, May 2, 2016
The ruling on his case has implications for a question that has concerned the military, veterans' groups, and death penalty experts: Should service-related PTSD exclude veterans from the death penalty? An answer to this question could affect some of the estimated 300 veterans who now sit on death rows across the country, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. But it's unclear how many of them suffer from PTSD or traumatic brain injuries, given how uneven the screening for these disorders has been.
Experts are divided about whether veterans with PTSD who commit capital crimes deserve what is known as a "categorical exemption" or "exclusion." Juveniles receive such treatment, as do those with mental disabilities. In 2009, Anthony Giardino, a lawyer and Iraq War veteran, argued in favor of this in the Fordham Law Review, writing that courts "should consider the more fundamental question of whether the government should be in the business of putting to death the volunteers they have trained, sent to war, and broken in the process" who likely would not be in that position "but for their military service." In a 2015 Veterans Day USA Today op-ed, three retired military officials argued that in criminal cases, defense attorneys, prosecutors, and judges often don't consider veterans' PTSD with proper due diligence. "Veterans with PTSD…deserve a complete investigation and presentation of their mental state by the best experts in the field," they wrote.
That part of the article is right. PTSD is not a get off the hook free pass but justice does require disclosure of it. These cases are still very rare, as indicated by the number of veterans reported to be on death row. We have about 22 million veterans in this country.
If we don't take care of them when they are in the service, which clearly evidence proves we don't, and then can't manage to take care of then as veterans, substance abuse usually follows along with a lot of other things. The very nature of someone in the military is to save people even though they are trained to kill in order do to that, but we tend to skip that part. So how is it they go from being willing to die for the sake of someone else into killing others?
That is a good place to start but then we have to add in the other simply fact we also like to forget. It is still happening. When it happened to all the other generations of veterans, we had the luxury of ignorance for an excuse. After all these years, no excuse should be acceptable because since 2007 the military and the VA has had 40 years of research to come up with a better plan than they ended up with.
