Widow keeps mission and love going on and on

After his death, combat veteran's family keeps his mission going
News4Jax
By Mary Baer
Jodi Mohrmann Anchor Managing Editor of special projects
April 23, 2018

"Most people dream of the kind of love that I had and I feel blessed that even though it was cut short I had that much time with him." Kristle Helmuth

MIDDLEBURG, Fla. - Nate Helmuth came home from war with a traumatic brain injury and PTSD, but instead of giving up, the combat veteran chose to help others like him. With his wife, Kristle, and their two children by their side, they worked tirelessly helping one military veteran at a time.

The couple, both U.S. Army veterans, also instilled patriotism and country into their children.

Photos of their 12-year-old son Nate Jr., assisting in lowering the Stars and Stripes at Coppergate Elementary went viral last fall as Hurricane Irma approached.

Now, the father that taught his son Nate Jr. and his daughter, Kinley, to respect the flag, is gone.

"I think we always knew that there was that chance that things would be more serious than they were and maybe we would lose him," Kristle said.

They lost Nate just four months ago. On Jan. 6, the 36-year-old unexpectedly collapsed in their home; he lost his life to the wounds he suffered years earlier in Iraq.

Besides Nate's PTSD and his traumatic brain injury caused by an explosion in Iraq, he inhaled chlorine.

"Basically it just shredded his lungs," said Kristle. "He couldn't breathe."

They were injuries that dashed his dream to be a Blackhawk helicopter mechanic.
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Soldier set to retire...after Vietnam?

From Vietnam to Afghanistan: A U.S. veteran's four decades of duty
UPI
By Susan McFarland
April 23, 2018

"Whenever our nation was in conflict, I just couldn't sit around and not be a part of defending it," U.S. Army and Navy veteran Victor T. Wright said.

After a career span of more than 40 years in the military, Sgt. 1st Class Victor T. Wright, 61, will soon retire. He may be the only recipient of a Vietnam Service Medal who is still active in the military. Photo courtesy Victor Wright/UPI

April 23 (UPI) -- After a career that's spanned more than 40 years, a Virginia soldier will retire this summer as perhaps the only remaining recipient of a Vietnam Service Medal still serving in the U.S. military.

U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Victor T. Wright entered the military in 1974 at age 17 as a way to "see the world" and get an education. Now 61, he will retire Aug. 31 after a career that included stints in both the Army and Navy, five enlistments and six deployments. His final post, as a senior aviation maintenance instructor in the Army's 128th Aviation Brigade, is at Fort Eustis, Va.

Wright has served a role in virtually every major conflict of his lifetime -- Vietnam, Gulf Wars I and II and Kosovo -- and tours in the Pacific theater, Indian Ocean, Kenya and Korea.

In fact, he may be the sole remaining active duty Vietnam veteran, according to military officials.
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Afghanistan Veteran makes history with this transplant

Injured veteran gets first complete penis and scrotum transplant
NBC News
by Maggie Fox
Apr.23.2018

“When I first woke up, I felt finally more normal… a level of confidence as well. Confidence… like finally I’m okay now.”

A veteran badly injured by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan is recovering from the first-ever transplant of a penis and scrotum, doctors said Monday.

Doctors perform a penis transplant on an injured Afghanistan veteran at Johns Hopkins University.Johns Hopkins Medicine

The soldier lost both legs above the knee, his penis and the area around it when the IED — improvised explosive device — blasted him.

But thanks to a donor and a team of transplant specialists who have been rehearsing for five years, the patient should recover near complete function of his penis, the doctors said.

According to a 2017 report in the Journal of Urology, more than 1,300 male veterans had suffered genital injuries sustained during action from 2001 to 2013 in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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How did Robbie West really die?

Family claims murder as they seek to reopen Fort Benning soldier suicide case
WRBL News
By: Mikhaela Singleton
Updated: Apr 21, 2018

"There was a lack of blood splatter, there was the weapon that was laid in his lap and it was up under a fold of his belly, which how can you shoot yourself in the head, lean over to the right, then the gun fall perfectly under the flap of your belly?" Deanne asks.

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) - Nearly seven years after losing her son, Christopher Robert "Robbie" West's mother says getting his case attention again is bittersweet.

Robbie West was a U.S. Army Sergeant who passed July 17, 2011. The Phenix City Police Department and Army CID ruled his death a suicide and closed the case, but Deanne Miller remains convinced otherwise. That's why she tells News 3 she contacted the Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen to further investigate her son's death.

"It's something of course you don't want to be on TV for, but it's because of the situation and because there's nothing we can change about what happened it's amazing that they contacted us," Deanne says.

Once producers with the show responded to Deanne's request, she and her family's lawyer Thomas Worthy shared the evidence they believe prove Robbie's death was actually a murder.
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Hero stopped gunman at Waffle House

CAPTURED

Shortly after 1 p.m., police announced Reinking had been arrested in a wooded area near Mountain Springs Drive — less than one mile from the scene of the shooting and close to Cane Ridge Elementary.

A tip from a construction worker led police to Reinking, officials said. Detectives from the department's narcotics unit swarmed the area.

Nude gunman kills four at Waffle House restaurant near Nashville
AOL
Thomson Reuters
Apr 22nd 2018

"The shots had stopped so he decided to rush the gunman, actually wrestled that assault rifle away, tossed it over the counter and, at that point, the gunman fled," said police spokesman Don Aaron.
Shaw's fast actions were credited with saving lives, but in an interview with the Tennessean newspaper he dismissed the idea that he was hero.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 22 (Reuters) - A nearly nude gunman killed at least four people at a Waffle House restaurant near Nashville, Tennessee early on Sunday and then fled after a patron saved lives by wrestling the assault-style rifle from his hands.

The suspected shooter, identified by authorities as Travis Reinking, 29, was still at large and murder warrants were being issued for him, the Metropolitan Nashville Police said.

Reinking, of Morton, Illinois was believed to live near the restaurant. The gunman's vehicle was registered to him and a shirtless man wearing pants believed to be Reinking was spotted in woods nearby, police said.

The gunman, who was naked but for a green jacket, first shot and killed two people in the parking lot of the restaurant in Antioch, a section of southeast Nashville, shortly before 3:30 a.m. (0830 GMT).
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