Gunman in Custody After Airport Shooting Left 5 Dead

Fort Lauderdale airport shooting: Multiple people killed, suspect in custody 
CNN
By Catherine E. Shoichet
Updated 3:18 PM ET, Fri January 6, 2017

(CNN)Gunshots erupted at the Fort Lauderdale airport on Friday, leaving multiple people dead. Authorities say the gunman, who appeared to be acting alone, is in custody. 

Here's the latest on what we know: 

• Five people are dead, and 13 injured people were transported to hospitals, Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief told CNN. • Multiple reports on social media -- including tweets from former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer -- described the shooting. read more here

Sailor Wants To Change a Letter in PTSD?

My heart breaks for him but, changing the name will do no good. As for how veterans think about PTSD, that is where real change begins. Getting them to understand what it is and why they have it will do a lot more to remove the stigma than changing a couple of letters. We've been at this for over forty years because Vietnam veterans came home and fought for all the research, including the name itself. It means after trauma, which is Greek for wound, you go into stress and things get out of order. You can change again. PTSD is only caused by surviving a traumatic event.

San Diego sailor starts petition to get PTSD classified as injury
ABC 10 News
Hannah Mullins, Kevin Beckman
Jan 5, 2017

"We're here to honor him and those like him and those like him," he said. PTSD is a big culprit when it comes to veterans killing themselves.

SAN DIEGO — A local sailor, Will Gibson, is on a mission to battle veteran suicide by renaming Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to an injury.

It is something Will Gibson, who is a Navy sailor, knows too well. Gibson's old college buddy, Tony Briley, was injured in the Army and could no longer serve. Physical pain led to mental anguish.

"We lost Tony this year in August," he said, then he hung his head and cried. "It makes me sad that I couldn't do more to help him," Gibson said.

Briley became one of an estimated 20 vets a day who kill themselves. He left behind a wife and two girls. Gibson has since learned a lot about veteran suicide.
read more here

Fort Bliss Wasn't Looking for Two Missing Soldiers?

Two soldiers are missing. Their families say the Army refused to look for nearly two weeks
Washington Post
By Avi Selk
January 5, 2016

Pfc. Jake Obad-Mathis (center) in a family photo after his enlistment in 2015. He

and Pfc. Melvin Jones have been missing from their base for more than two weeks.

(Courtesy of Carin Obad)

As his mother describes him, Jake Obad-Mathis does not look like most soldiers.

At age 20, after more than a year in the Army, he is still thin and small. He stands a head shorter than most of his comrades at Fort Bliss, Tex. He’s shy and talks with a slight stutter.

Or so he did, before the private first class disappeared Dec. 19.

If you have seen her son, Carin Obad would like to know. She has been searching for him for more than two weeks.

So has the family of his friend, Pfc. Melvin Jones, who disappeared on the same day from the same base.

Now — after nearly two weeks of rejections, excuses and abrupt dial tones from police and military brass, Obad said — the Army is finally looking, too.
read more here

Veteran Finds Out He's Not The Father, VA Wants Money Back?

Very poorly written report. First there is a difference between "Retirement Pay" that is from the Department of Defense. Then there is Disability Compensation that is from the VA and is rated by degree of a Service Connected Disability. There is a VA Pension with these requirements

In addition to meeting minimum service requirements, the Veteran must be:

• Age 65 or older, OR

• Totally and permanently disabled, OR

• A patient in a nursing home receiving skilled nursing care, OR

• Receiving Social Security Disability Insurance, OR

• Receiving Supplemental Security Income

There are different rates of compensation for a single veteran as well as a veteran with a spouse and/or child.  So is this about the VA paid for the child that turned out to not be his and they want the money back?

Either way, this veteran is stuck with a huge headache topped off with a reporter that did not do basic research on the subject that was important enough to write about.

Army veteran says VA taking his money to pay child support for a boy who is not his BY TRIBUNE MEDIA WIRE POSTED 2:38 PM, JANUARY 4, 2017

AURORA, Colo. -- An Army veteran in Colorado says the Department of Veterans Affairs is wrongly garnishing his retirement pay.Elmo Jones, a retired Green Beret, served our country for more than two decades. But he's going up against a behemoth bureaucracy to stop child support payments for a boy who is not his.The VA is taking a big chunk of his retirement pay each month to pay support for the now-5-year-old boy.It's something a Colorado court already ruled the ex-wife is not entitled to receive."This is America? Really?" Jones said.The 57-year-old served in the U.S. Army for 21 years, including combat in the Persian Gulf War. But he's finding the toughest mission of his life is on home soil.read more here

Fort Carson Soldiers Rescue Woman Trapped in Car

Fort Carson Soldiers credited with helping a woman pinned by a vehicle
KKTV 11 News
January 3, 2016

"I mean, at the minimum they prevented further injury they could have even saved her life," said Trooper Timothy Deen with the Colorado State Patrol.

FOUNTAIN, Colo. (KKTV) - Several Fort Carson Soldiers are being hailed as unsung heroes. Members of the Colorado State Patrol are hoping to give credit where credit is due.

A rollover crash Tuesday morning left a woman pinned by part of her red SUV. The crash happened at about 7 a.m. on I-25 near the Mesa Ridge Parkway exit.

Good Samaritans that stopped to help say there were at least three men, likely from Fort Carson, that held the vehicle up off the woman until the fire department arrived on scene.

"She was pinned and trapped, she was able to speak and let us know that she didn't believe that she was injured in anyway," said Sgt. Sean Hartley with the Fountain Police Department. "However half of her body was in the vehicle and the other half was out with the vehicle on its side and kind of leaning towards the rest of her body."

The crash was believed to be caused by icy road conditions. The conditions didn't keep the group of unidentified soldiers from attempting to help the trapped woman.
read more here