Medal of Honor, Michael Monsoor was killed saving fellow SEALS

Garden Grove SEAL to get Medal of Honor
By Tony Perry
Michael Monsoor was killed saving fellow SEALS while battling insurgents in Iraq in 2006.


Monsoor "without hesitation and showing no regard for his own life" fell on the grenade although he had a clear path to escape, Navy documents show. He had earlier been awarded a Silver Star for rescuing a wounded SEAL during the same deployment.

His parents, George and Sally Monsoor, have been invited to the White House to receive the Medal of Honor from President Bush. Their son is the first sailor to receive the medal for combat in Iraq; another SEAL, Lt. Michael Murphy, received the Medal of Honor, also posthumously, for actions in Afghanistan.

Marine Eric Hall's life and story won't end

Eric Hall, an Iraq war veteran, disappeared last month after having a flashback. (Chip Litherland for The New York Times)

Photos and Audio: The search and mourning for a Marine» View
Hunt for lost marine brings a community together
By Damien Cave
Published: March 31, 2008

PORT CHARLOTTE, Florida: A week after Eric Hall disappeared into the woods of Southwest Florida, his mother stood in a parking lot overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. She had asked for volunteers. Would they come?
Becky Hall's son had experienced a flashback, fleeing a relative's home after sensing that Iraqi insurgents had surrounded him. He was 24, a former marine corporal from Indiana who had been medically discharged after a bomb ripped through his leg. Here, among the retirees and strip malls, he was a stranger.
And yet his absence spurred a community to action. More than 50 people stepped forward that first day in February. Others came later, young and old, contributing four-wheelers, pickup trucks, boats, horses, search-and-rescue dogs, and even a small plane.
They searched day in day out for weeks because Hall's story broke their hearts and, many said, because his case inspired them to look past arguments over whether the war was right or wrong. It was a mission, not a debate: A marine was missing and had to be found.
"He has these issues as a result of what we asked him to do," said Kathryn Preston, 52, a botanist who spent time in the Army as a young woman and used her pontoon boat for the search. "It felt like we were responsible for him. People in the United States. All of us."

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http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/31/america/marine.php

There are very few stories I have time to cover from start to finish. While I have tried to post every story on Eric Hall, I doubt I will ever know how this ends. His family has been trying to heal at the same time they have joined other families fighting to end the stigma of PTSD, have the wounded cared for as soon as possible and better than they have been. Joshua Omvig's story didn't end yet, and I doubt Eric Hall's story will end either. As long as there are wounded in this country dealing with war that never ends inside of them, there will be more Eric's and Joshua's stories still developing. I will do what I can to make sure their stories are not forgotten.

Boos for Bush at Washington Nationals Opening Game

Boos for Bush
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com Monday, March 31, 2008; 1:52 PM
There's a reason President Bush almost never appears before members of the general public: They really don't like him.
Despite the delirious mood of Washington Nationals fans on opening night at their new stadium, Bush was greeted with loud boos when he came to the mound to deliver the traditional first pitch.
Video from the Washington Times indicates that the boos were lusty. An ESPN video, via ThinkProgress.org, is more of a mixed bag of boos and cheers. But in additional Youtube videos from fans in right field and high above first base the boos had it.
It was a rare moment for Bush, who avoids public expressions of disagreement by appearing almost exclusively before carefully selected audiences. In fact, this is the first time in years I can recall him appearing before the unscreened masses. Far more typical are events like his most recent Thanksgiving address. As I wrote then, even when he was talking about something as uncontroversial as the essential goodness of our country, he wanted his audience prescreened for obsequiousness.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFERHI5CbCM

Orlando Cable failure sends fireworks into WrestleMania fans

Cable failure sends fireworks into WrestleMania fans
Walter Pacheco Sentinel Staff Writer
11:30 AM EDT, March 31, 2008

A cable failure near the conclusion of Sunday's WrestleMania 24 event sent burning fireworks shooting into the crowd of cheering fans.

Orlando Fire Department officials this morning said that 30 to 35 wrestling fans suffered minor welts and other first-degree burns when the cable holding the fireworks on the west end of the Citrus Bowl collapsed.

"The west cable failed and then dropped the fireworks into the crowd below," Assistant Fire Chief Greg Hoggatt said. "The fireworks and hot cables fell into the 300 section, the middle of the 200 section and into the 100 section, close to the stage."

Hoggatt said there were reports of multiple injuries in various parts of the stadium as a result of the fireworks. "The people with non-critical and non-life-threatening injuries were asked to go to first aid for treatment. Three people requested that they be transported to the hospital."

Those victims were taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center, reports show. There is no information on their condition.

Calls to the World Wrestling Entertainment corporation were not immediately returned to the Orlando Sentinel.

Check back for more updates.
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I wonder if there were any veterans with PTSD there. They do not react well to July 4th fireworks. I doubt they did very well with this last night. I also wonder if any of the people there will end up with PTSD. Can you imagine going there to enjoy the night and have this happen?

Couples Row for Iraq deployed spouses

Married Troops Can Live Together in Iraq
By BRADLEY BROOKS and RUSS BYNUM Associated Press Writers
2:15 PM EDT, March 31, 2008

BAGHDAD - When American soldiers get off duty in Iraq, the men usually return to their quarters, the women to theirs. But Staff Sgt. Marvin Frazier gets to go back to a small trailer with two pushed-together single beds that he shares with his wife.

In a historic but little-noticed change in policy, the Army is allowing scores of husband-and-wife soldiers to live and sleep together in the war zone -- a move aimed at preserving marriages, boosting morale and perhaps bolstering re-enlistment rates at a time when the military is struggling to fill its ranks five years into the fighting.

"It makes a lot of things easier," said Frazier, 33, a helicopter maintenance supervisor in the 3rd Infantry Division. "It really adds a lot of stress, being separated. Now you can sit face-to-face and try to work out things and comfort each other."

Long-standing Army rules barred soldiers of the opposite sex from sharing sleeping quarters in war zones. Even married troops lived only in all-male or all-female quarters and had no private living space.

More than 10,000 couples are in the Army. Exactly how many are serving in the war zone, and how many of those are living together, are not clear. The Army said it does not keep track.

But Frazier and his wife, Staff Sgt. Keisha Frazier, are among about 40 married Army couples living together on "Couples Row" at Camp Striker, which is on the oustkirts of Baghdad and is one of more than 150 U.S. military camps in Iraq. Similarly, a Couples Row opened in October at nearby Camp Victory, though it has trailers for only seven of the many couples who have requested them.
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Mom sends two sons back to Iraq again, and again

Iowa brothers called for multiple deployments

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Mar 31, 2008 11:39:17 EDT

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Pat Chambers is proud of her sons, but a bit frustrated as well.

Later this year she will watch her two sons deploy to Iraq for a combined sixth time — a painful process that hasn’t gotten any easier with repetition.

“I want it all to end,” Chambers said. “I want them all to come home. Enough is enough.”

So far, the Navy has deployed 25-year-old Josh Chambers to Iraq three times. He’s headed back there April 5 for what’s expected to be a seven- to nine-month stint. His older brother Jonathan, an Army sergeant, is scheduled to leave in October for his second deployment.

“I was hoping not to go back, but your commanding officer, they see you do a good job,” said Josh Chambers, a 2001 graduate of Cedar Rapids Washington High School.

Josh Chambers is a Navy hospital corpsman, the equivalent of a battlefield medic, charged with caring for the approximately 50 troops in his platoon. He said his mother was an emergency room nurse, “and she always gave me her stories.”
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/ap_brothersdeploy_033008/

I don't know how the families are able to keep doing this over and over again. How many times can they say good-bye, welcome them home and then have to send them back again?

Agent Orange linked to death 20 years later

20 years after death, veteran's illnesses linked to Vietnam

The Jackson Sun
• March 30, 2008


Almost 20 years after his death, the Department of Veterans Affairs has recognized that an area Army veteran had a valid claim to service-related disability benefits.

"I wish he could've been alive to have it," said Virginia Grimes, the widow of veteran Andrew Grimes. She will receive a service-connected death benefit compensation in light of this recognition.

Her husband, a Gibson County native, fought in Vietnam and Cambodia and had began filing paperwork with the Veterans Administration in 1987 to get benefits after he became ill. He died at age 40 on Dec. 5, 1988, after The American Legion Magazine had featured him in a story about Vietnam veterans' filing for disability.

Grimes said her husband always believed his declining health and a rare lymphoma cancer were results of his exposure to the chemical defoliant Agent Orange during combat in the jungles of Cambodia in 1970.
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http://www.jacksonsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080330/NEWS01/80330008/1002

End the stigma of PTSD and TBI with medal

Letter faxed to Senator Akaka and Congressman Bob Filner.

I have been doing outreach work with veterans who have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for 25 years. My husband is a Vietnam Vet with PTSD. I have a blog, web page and videos on PTSD as well as extensive research. I am associated with many organizations in America and communicate with veterans from around the world. One of the biggest obstacles in seeking treatment for PTSD is when the veterans do not know what it is. When they do, the other obstacle is the stigma associated with it.

We treat PTSD and TBI as a sub-standard wound. While a service connected disability rating is treated the same, we do not acknowledge it as a wound caused by combat. The Wound Chevron was discontinued and replaced by the Purple Heart for bloodshed in service. It is my belief that we should restore the medal but change it to reflect the wounds we cannot see. It has blue stripes to signify mind, body and spirit along with a heart because it is a wound that can be seen when you look at the veteran with your heart.

I am asking you to provide a bill to provide this medal for our veterans to remove the stigma and treat both wounds the same as all others.

Republican. Military Veteran. Obama Supporter

Republican. Military Veteran. Obama Supporter.
By Kloris

30 March 2008
Republican. Military Veteran. Obama Supporter.
A post from a "Republican military veteran" on the Republicans for Obama site:

In my opinion as a U.S. Army veteran, the Bush administration has "dropped the ball" in terms of providing quality health care for our wounded and disabled active-duty personnel and our veterans ...our troops have not been --at least consistently-- provided with proper body armor, vehicular armor, and other essential materiel they need to complete their mission. We have 4,000 dead and roughly 20,000 wounded, troops serving multiple combat tours, and radically and constantly shifting military objectives (all detrimental to troop morale) ...

As much as I personally admire Senator McCain, voting for him as president would feel like giving George Bush's failed military leadership and foreign policies a third term to make more of a mess. I do not see any significant difference between Bush's military policies to date and McCain's proposals platforrm for national security ...

Senator Obama captured my attention when he said (in two televised debates, so far) that he would, as president, try to capture or kill Osama bin Laden if he knew where the Al Qaeda leader was hiding in Pakistan, and that he would do it with or without the cooperation of Pakistan’s president ... I am sick and tired of seven years of Osama Bin Laden's continuing televised threats against our nation and our people. President Bush has lost focus on bringing Bin Laden to justice. Senator Obama won't coddle Pakistan's leaders if he believes Bin Laden is in Pakistan.

Please take time to visit the Veterans For Obama website. Learn why I, a Republican military veteran, am supporting Senator Obama for President here.

Vets4Vets three day support workshop

Peer-support veterans' group ends three-day workshop in Midway
By Paul Beebe
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 03/30/2008 03:13:40 PM MDT


Posted: 3:01 PM- MIDWAY - Too often the only people veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq can turn to for understanding when they return home are other vets who fought and survived the twin wars.

Acknowledging that truth and another sad fact - nearly a third of veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq have mental health difficulties - a growing number of war fighters are turning to Vets4Vets, a national organization founded in 2005 by Jim Driscoll, a Marine Corps Vietnam combat veteran and retired Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.

The nonpartisan, nonpolitical organization provides peer support to veterans trying to find healthy ways of coping with the impact of war on their psyches so they can put Afghanistan or Iraq to rest and resume their former lives.

"Many veterans find (peer support) uniquely helpful. There's something special about talking to another veteran from the same era," Driscoll said Sunday near the end of a three-day Vets4Vets workshop in Midway. About a dozen veterans, including several from other states, attended the session to share stories and learn techniques that can control mood swings.

Driscoll's organization is funded by contributions and a $1 million grant from the Iraq and Afghanistan Deployment Impact Fund in California that has raised $100 million from private donors to meet the needs of returning servicemen and servicewomen.

There is a huge need. The military has deployed more than 1.5 million U.S. soldiers, sailors, marines and air force personnel to Iraq and Afghanistan. A third of returning veterans, or roughly 500,000 people suffer anxiety, depression or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
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http://origin.sltrib.com/ci_8750447