Montel Williams to headline gala for Middletown charity that gives vets free service dogs
Middletown Press
By Press Staff
September 4, 2019
“His work and devotion to military and veteran community matches the mission of our foundation,” Alicki said of Williams, who is hosting a new season of “Military Makeover with Montel,” a reality show focused on rebuilding houses and lives of military and veterans families.
MIDDLETOWN — A charity gala to benefit the Middletown-based Forever In My Heart Foundation will be held Sept. 28 at the Foxwoods Resort Casino Grand Pequot Ballroom.
The event, which features Montel Williams as celebrity guest speaker, will run from 5 to 10 p.m.
“Forever In My Heart Foundation was founded to make an impact in the lives of homeless dogs in animal shelters and disabled U.S. veterans in our communities,” Alicki said.
Heidi Voight from NBC Connecticut will emcee the evening, and Los Angeles-based Dr. Barbara J. Gitlitz, who “is devoted to changing laws and protecting animals against cruelty and abuse,” are also expected to attend, according to foundation founder and president Mira Alicki, owner of Mira’s Jewelry Designs at 476 Main St.
The event will include live entertainment, food prepared by Foxwoods’ executive chef and dancing. Proceeds will go toward the foundation’s mission to save dogs in shelters and improve lives of Connecticut’s disabled veterans, according to Alicki.
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Firefighters battle blaze at Titusville home of fire lieutenant
Florida Today
Tyler Vazquez
Sept. 4, 2019
Brevard county fire fighters responded to a structure fire just after midnight Wednesday in North Titusville.
Firefighters battle a Titusville blaze that broke out during Hurricane Dorian. (Photo: BCFR)
The home on the 4200 block of Pond Apple Drive belongs to a Brevard County Fire Rescue lieutenant who was notified of the fire by the PulsePoint app on his phone.
Video from the blaze showed smoke, flames and hose water being whipped around on gusts from Hurricane Dorian, which was crawling north off the coast of Brevard County overnight Tuesday into Wednesday.
He was able to make his way out of the two-story house unharmed, according to reports.
Fire investigators were still working to determine the cause after the blaze broke out or if it was directly caused by Hurricane Dorian.
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First female Air Force airman earns Army Ranger tab
Air Force Times
By: Diana Stancy Correll
September 3, 2019
“Ranger School is truly not for the weak or faint of heart. It speaks well of all those who persevere to find that inner grit and motivation to push through all that Ranger School throws at them,” said Lt. Col. Walter Sorensen, Air Force Security Forces Center chief of training, in an Air Force news release.
Air Force 1st Lt. Chelsey Hibsch has become the first female airman to graduate from Army Ranger School in Fort Benning, Georgia. She is now a flight commander in the 821st Contingency Response Support Squadron at Travis Air Force Base, California. (Machiko Arita/Air Force)
Nearly 300 airmen have earned the Ranger tab since the Army started accepting airmen into its school 64 years ago. But none have been women — that is, until Air Force 1st Lt. Chelsey Hibsch became the first female airman to earn the tab last week.
Hibsch, a former enlisted airman who previously served with the 374th Security Forces Squadron at Yokota Air Base in Japan, pinned on the tab at the Army Ranger School graduation at Fort Benning, Georgia, Aug. 30.
She was eligible to take the Army Ranger Course after she attended the Air Force’s Ranger Assessment Course, which is hosted by the Air Force Security Forces Center and based on the first two weeks of the Army Ranger Course. She also attended the Tropic Lightning Academy at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.
Hibsch described the Air Force’s Ranger Assessment Course as “an unmatched learning experience on leadership and followership," and prepared her for Ranger School because it provided an “understanding of how you function when you’re hungry, tired, wet, cold and worse, then you have to lead a team of individuals feeling the exact same way."
“You really find out a lot about your teammates and yourself in these stressful situations,” Hibsch said, according to an Air Force news release.
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Some beachside homeless vets refuse to shelter from Hurricane Dorian
Florida Today
Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon
Sept. 3, 2019
Afflicted with psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis, homeless Marine Corps veteran Larry Wells on Tuesday said it's only when the winds are predicted to exceed 120 miles per hour that he'll think about leaving the BP gas station car wash on the corner of 518 and North Riverside Drive in Indiatlantic.
While he recognizes the dangers of Hurricane Dorian which hit the Bahamas as a category 5 storm with gusts exceeding 220 miles per hour, 69-year-old Wells is confident in his ability to ride it out. Dorian's churning, stalling and unpredictable path are a source of amusement, even.
"There's people who've bought gas three different times, I've seen these stores sell out of gas and water twice already in the past five days," he says with a chuckle.
He knows there are shelters with hot meals and a place to sleep, that an evacuation order is in place, and that there are free rides to and from shelters. But, he's insistent he'll be fine, as the family that runs the station where he hangs out much of the time, have given him the key to the bathroom where he can take shelter "if things get really nasty".
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update Fort Bragg among N.C. military bases to take $80M hit to fund Trump’s border wall
North Carolina’s military bases will lose about $80 million in planned military construction, according to a list released by the Pentagon on Wednesday of projects across the United States losing funding to build President Donald Trump’s border wall with Mexico.
The affected projects in North Carolina include $40 million for a new battalion complex and ambulatory care center at Camp Lejeune, a previously canceled $32.9 million elementary school at Fort Bragg, and a $6.4 million storage facility for the new KC-46 tanker at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
Those projects join cuts at a Florida base nearly destroyed by last year’s hurricane season, a new middle school for Kentucky’s Fort Campbell and a new fire station for a Marine Corps base in South Carolina.
UPDATE Tarps from Florence are still on roofs of hundreds of buildings at Lejeune, New River as Hurricane Dorian arrives
Fahy said following Florence, 345 buildings needed tarps on them. But he said that the Marine bases have made some progress with regards to roof repairs, with many buildings slated to get metal roof replacements. With a nearly $3.6 billion price tag in damages from Florence, the Corps is worried about the additional destruction that may come with Hurricane Dorian.
Maj. Gen. Julian D. Alford, the commander of Marine Corps Installations East, posted on the Camp Lejeune Facebook page that “many of the buildings on our installations are still undergoing repairs and are vulnerable to leaks.”
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More than 100 military construction projects could be put on hold to free up funds for a US-Mexico border wall
Military Times
By: Meghann Myers
Septamber 3, 2019
The funding comes from $1.8 billion each in funds designated for domestic and overseas projects, McCusker said. The 127 projects targeted are not canceled, she added, and are not necessarily going to be put on hold.
The Army Corps of Engineers is slated to replace, or build new barriers, in 11 places along the U.S.-Mexico border. (Dave Palmer/Army Corps of Engineers)
The Pentagon is prepared to fund 175 miles of border wall construction, Pentagon officials said Tuesday, using $3.6 billion in military construction funds that had been designated for 127 projects over the next year.
Officials declined to release a full list of the affected projects until the Pentagon has finished notifying the lawmakers who oversee the districts where they are planned, but said that family housing, barracks or projects that have had contracts awarded or are expected to be awarded in fiscal year 2020 will not be affected.
About 3,000 active duty and 2,000 National Guard troops are currently deployed to the southwestern border helping the Homeland Security Department with surveillance, detention of migrants and processing asylum requests.
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Now you know who is paying for Trump's Wall! It isn't Mexico....no shocker there.
