The Pentagon (WBEN/Connecting Vets) - In a moving ceremony in the auditorium deep inside The Pentagon, David Bellavia took the stage following numerous dignitary remarks and spoke from his heart wearing the Medal of Honor he received Tuesday at The White House.
Former Staff Sgt.Bellavia, was inducted into the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon.
The Hall of Heroes is a dedicated space that opened in the Pentagon in 1968 to recognize every Medal of Honor recipient. The names of each of the roughly 3,600 recipients are listed there for recognition.
Bellavia's induction ceremony was led by Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist who described just how rare of a hero Bellavia truly is.
"We may use the term hero all the time. But there are in fact heroes among our heroes and they are very rare," Norquist said. "Since the Medal of Honor's creation in 1861, of the tens of millions who have served in the U.S. military, less than 3,600 medals have been awarded each after painstaking deliberation and consideration."
However, consistent with his efforts at Tuesday's Medal of Honor ceremony to ensure his unit receives as much recognition as he does, Bellavia requested that Norquist also recognize his unit during the Hall of Heroes induction.
v
"David would also ask us to push the spotlight from himself back to his unit," Norquist said. "Let me highlight for the audience that the heroism displayed during the course of the Battle of Fallujah earned Task Force 2-2 the Presidential Unit Citation. David and his fellow soldiers here today come from a task force of heroes."
And when it was Bellavia's time to speak, he told the stories of the men in his squad — the men who comprise his memories and his understanding of the Iraq War. read more here
When exactly do we finally admit that all the awareness is useless and it is time to change what we are doing?
Madison County District Attorney’s Office finds fatal Huntsville police shooting was justified
WHNT 19 News BY BRIAN LAWSON JUNE 24, 2019
After her Army service in Iraq, Ragland spent time in a Kansas Army facility that helps wounded and ill soldiers transition to civilian life or continued Army service.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - The Madison County District Attorney's Office agrees with a Huntsville shooting review board in finding that the use of deadly force during a police encounter with an Army veteran suffering from PTSD was justified.
On Friday, a police review board determined the officers involved in the shooting acted within department policy.
Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard told WHNT News 19 Monday that the evidence supports the board's finding.
"The investigator with the Huntsville Police Department met with us and laid out the case," Broussard said. "He showed us the evidence, including the body cams. It was clearly a justified shooting on the part of HPD. There will be no action on our part with respect to presentment to a grand jury, because it was clearly justified."
The fatal incident came after a call from the Stadium Apartments where Ragland lived. Police said they responded to a call of a woman waving a gun and making threats at Stadium Apartments. The woman, 32-year-old Crystal Ragland, served 17 months in the Iraq war and suffered from PTSD. That call proved to be a fatal and tragic collision. read more here
Rep. Duncan Hunter accused of using campaign money to finance affairs with 5 women
Task and Purpose Jeff Schogol June 25, 2019
In one case, Hunter was supposed to stay with his wife for three nights in a hotel, but Margaret Hunter arrived a day later than expected because she had to rebook her flight, court documents say. Hunter allegedly kept his room reservation for the first night and spent it with his mistress.
The Justice Department has accused Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) of illegally using campaign funds to pay for extramarital affairs with five women.
Hunter, who fought in the Iraq War as a Marine artillery officer, and his wife Margaret were indicated by a federal jury on Aug. 21, 2018 for allegedly using up to $250,000 in campaign funds for personal use.
In a recent court filing, federal prosecutors accused Hunter of using campaign money to pay for a variety of expenses involved with his affairs, ranging from a $1,008 hotel bill to $7 for a Sam Adams beer.
"Carrying out all these affairs did not come cheap—Hunter spent thousands of dollars treating women to meals, drinks, and vacations, and traveling to and from their homes," according to a June 24 motion to admit evidence of Hunter using campaign funds for personal relationships. "Given the pronounced financial difficulties the Hunters were facing, his use of campaign funds to pursue these relationships was necessary for Hunter to satisfy his desire for intimacy." read more here
Here is what to do if you want to help after a tragedy
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 19, 2019
Right now, everyone wants to help the Jarheads after the terrible tragedy that claimed the lives of 7 of their group.
Right now they need all the support they can get, but it is more important they receive the right kind of help.
While the shock is still fresh for them, many will experience a harder time after the funerals. Some may think it is their job to stay strong for the others, and that is OK, as long as they allow themselves time to grieve.
Let them honor what they are feeling so they can begin healing.
If they are angry do not try to shut it down. Help them yell at the air, hit pillows, stomp their feet...let them release it.
If they want to cry, let them. Hold their hand, walk beside them or sit near them. Let them know you are there for whatever they need. Do not try to stop their tears. They will stop crying when they get out as much pain as they need to.
If they want to talk, listen to them. Do not try to fix them. They do not need to be "fixed" and you finding something to say is not what they need from you. They need your ear, your time and patience.
If you think about what you would want from them if you were in their place, that will help you know what to do...as much as you will know what to not do, or get as close as you can.
There is no time limit to grieving other than as long as it takes them to do it. No two people are the same.
If you are a survivor, know that the guilt you may feel is "normal" but whatever you think you may have been able to do, it was not like the movie you can play out in your own mind. Most of the time, what you think you should have done, or could have done, is usually impossible.
Do not blame yourself any more than you blame God. He did not do this, but He did send people to help comfort you as much as they can. Lean on those who care about you so you can heal. After all, you'd probably do the same for them.
Within 30 days, if you address what you are going through, your pain should ease up. Flashbacks and nightmares should begin to lose power.
While the pain may be there for a long time, as long as it is not as strong, keep working on it.
If your pain is stronger after 30 days, contact a mental health professional so that you can work on healing with their help.
Know that if you are hit by PTSD, it hit you because your emotional core is strong. As you feel good stuff stronger, you feel pain on a deeper level. As a survivor use that strength to help you heal.
Honor your feelings so you can begin healing! Trying to "get over it" or "stuff it" lets that pain spread out like an infection.
If I can help contact me at woundedtimes@aol.com or 407-754-5426 and it will be kept confidential.
Motorcycle club leader says resignation of RMV head over N.H. crash is ‘ridiculous’
Boston Globe By Travis Andersen and John Hilliard Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent June 26, 2019
The head of a motorcycle club that lost seven people in a horrific New Hampshire crash last week said Wednesday that the abrupt resignation of the Massachusetts RMV boss is a “ridiculous” response to the tragedy, allegedly caused by a West Springfield man who kept his commercial driver’s license after an impaired driving arrest last month in Connecticut.
“It’s ridiculous for someone to be allowed to resign, or forced to resign . . . [and] run away from the problem,” said Manny Ribeiro, president of Jarheads MC, which lost seven riders who were killed June 21 when a truck driven by Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, 23, allegedly plowed into them in Randolph, N.H. read more here
‘It was extremely horrific’: Jarheads motorcycle club president describes New Hampshire crash scene
“It was like nothing I’d ever seen — never in my life.” Boston.com By Dialynn Dwyer June 25, 2019
A Marine who survived the deadly New Hampshire crash that killed seven motorcyclists says what he witnessed that day was worse than anything he saw in combat.
Manny Ribeiro and his wife, Valerie, were riding in the front of the group of motorcyclists with Jarheads MC, a New England-based club for Marine veterans and their spouses, when an oncoming pickup truck hauling a trailer collided with other bikers in the group on Friday evening in Randolph, New Hampshire.
“It was like nothing I’d ever seen — never in my life,” he told reporters on Monday, according to CBS Boston.
The driver of the pickup, 23-year-old Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, was arrested and charged Monday with seven counts of negligent homicide. Authorities have not revealed details about the potential cause of the crash, only that Zhukovskyy was traveling west on U.S. 2 while the bikers were headed east at the time.
Ribeiro, who is now serving as president of Jarheads MC, told the Associated Press that the 21 riders in the group of 15 motorcycles had just finished dinner and were on their way to a fundraiser at a nearby American Legion post.
The motorcyclist had been riding beside the club’s president, Albert Mazza Jr., 59, of Lee, New Hampshire, at the time of the crash.
“It was just an explosion … with parts and Al and everything flying through the air,” he said. “He turned hard left into us and took out pretty much everyone behind me. The truck and trailer stayed attached and that is why it was so devastating … because the trailer was attached and it was such a big trailer, it was like a whip. It just cleaned us out.” read more here To contact the JarHeads go here
David Bellavia receives the Medal of Honor for his actions in a ‘house of nightmares’
STARS AND STRIPES By COREY DICKSTEIN Published: June 25, 2019
WASHINGTON — Pinned down inside a pitch-black, insurgent-filled house in the early days of the second battle of Fallujah, Staff Sgt. David Bellavia grabbed a heavy M249 automatic machine gun from another soldier and charged forward into oncoming fire from enemy fighters hunkered down in a stairwell.
The enemy fighters froze, ducking away from Bellavia’s fire just long enough for his squad to escape the building and regroup outside. Moments later, with his fellow soldiers outside, the infantryman from Buffalo, N.Y, burst back into the building — eventually killing four insurgents and gravely wounding another.
Nearly 15 years later, Bellavia stood stoically Tuesday as President Donald Trump placed the Medal of Honor around his neck for his actions that night — Nov. 10, 2004, his 29th birthday. The former infantryman who left the Army in 2005 never cracked a smile during the White House ceremony, sharing only telling nods with more than a dozen of the men with whom he served. Along with his family, the men joined him on the East Room stage and a packed audience roared and applauded.
Many of those men would not have made it to the White House on Tuesday if it were not for Bellavia and his “exceptional courage to protect his men and defend our nation,” against an enemy “that would have killed them all had it not been for David,” Trump said. read more here From the White House
