Oakland police mourned by family, fellow officers and dignitaries

Oakland police mourned by family, fellow officers and dignitaries

The city's 800-strong police force, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and both of the state's senators attend the funeral of Mark Dunakin, John Hege, Ervin Romans and Daniel Sakai.
By Ann M. Simmons and Peter H. King
1:39 PM PDT, March 27, 2009
Reporting from Los Angeles and Oakland -- Mourners jammed the 19,000-seat Oracle Arena in Oakland today to pay their respects to four Oakland police officers killed by a parolee after a routine traffic stop turned into a manhunt and gun battle.

Hundreds of law enforcement personnel and government officials from across the nation and Canada joined family and friends of the slain officers: Mark Dunakin, John Hege, Ervin Romans and Daniel Sakai. The entire 800-strong Oakland police force attended, wearing black tape stretched diagonally across their badges. Many sniffed back tears.
go here for more
Oakland police mourned by family, fellow officers and dignitaries

VA: 16 patients of problem clinics infected

Mar 27, 9:23 PM EDT


VA: 16 patients of problem clinics infected

By BILL POOVEY
Associated Press Writer

CHATANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- Viral infections, including hepatitis, have been found in 16 patients exposed to contaminated equipment at Veterans Affairs medical facilities, a department spokeswoman said Friday. So far, 10 colonoscopy patients from the VA medical center in Murfreesboro, Tenn., have tested positive for hepatitis, VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts told The Associated Press.

In a later e-mail, she reported six patients at the VA's ear, nose and throat clinic in Augusta, Ga, tested positive for unspecified viral infections.
go here for more
VA: 16 patients of problem clinics infected

Non-combat death in Iraq announced by DOD

DoD Identifies Army Casualty


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.



Staff Sgt. Raphael A. Futrell, 26, of Anderson, S.C., died March 25 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 13th Military Police Detachment, 728th Military Police Battalion, 8th Military Police Brigade, 8th Theater Sustainment Command, Fort Shafter, Hawaii.



The incident is under investigation.

http://icasualties.org/Iraq/index.aspx

St Andrews University dies after head trauma

Fall student dies after all-clear from hospital


Alex Richardson fell around 15 feet through the skylight of the Mica Home Store

Date: 28 March 2009
By Fiona Macleod and Lyndsay Moss
A STUDENT at St Andrews University has died from a head injury two days after he was discharged from hospital in a tragedy that echoes the recent death of actress Natasha Richardson.

Alex Richardson, 21, crashed through a skylight of a DIY story in St Andrews town centre on Tuesday night after venturing on to the roof to dance during a student party.

He was treated by paramedics at the scene and rushed to hospital and released the following afternoon.

But just six hours after leaving Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, friends found him collapsed and unconscious at home after a suspected brain haemorrhage.

Despite being rushed back to the hospital, his condition deteriorated rapidly and his life-support machine was turned off yesterday after friends and family travelled from his home town of Newmarket, Suffolk, to be by his bedside.

Medical experts said the case echoed that of movie star Natasha Richardson, who died recently after injuring her head skiing in Canada.
go here for more
Fall student dies after all-clear from hospital

Military sends help as uncertainty floods Fargo

Military sends help as uncertainty floods Fargo
U.S. military forces and 15 helicopters were ordered Friday night to Fargo, North Dakota, to assist the state as it prepares for possible historic flooding, a U.S. military official told CNN. The swollen Red River broke a 112-year-old flood record earlier, and Fargo was winding down a massive sandbagging effort. "If we're going to go down, we're going to go down swinging," the mayor said. full story

Bill would improve vets insurance benefits

Bill would improve vets insurance benefits

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Mar 27, 2009 16:44:39 EDT

The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman introduced legislation Thursday to improve veterans insurance benefits.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, proposes to expand retroactive payments of traumatic injury insurance, to increase supplemental life insure for totally disabled veterans, and to create a new life insurance program for veterans with service-connected disabilities.

This is the second major veterans bill introduced this year by Akaka, who in early March unveiled a rehabilitation and employment package.

In a statement, Akaka said the new bill, S 728, “improves benefits for veterans with severe burn injuries, expands insurance programs, and secures cost-of-living increases for certain benefits, some of which have not been updated for decades.”
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/03/military_veteransinsurance_032709w/

Maj. Gen. John F. Campbell to be new Fort Campbell Commander

Campbell gets new commander

The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Mar 27, 2009 18:11:06 EDT

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Maj. Gen. John F. Campbell, deputy director for regional operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been named the new commanding general for Fort Campbell and the 101st Airborne Division.

The military announced the assignment Friday, but it will likely be months before he officially takes command of the installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee state line.

Campbell will replace Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, who is the commander of U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan.

Schloesser took command in May 2006 and has overseen the division’s split deployment starting in 2007 to Iraq and Afghanistan.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/03/ap_campbellcommander_032709/

Shattered soldiers say there was no help when they needed it for PTSD

This is what the national media should be reporting on instead of filling time in with the easy things to report on. Every channel you turn to, they are all talking about the same story, the same rumor, the same trouble. This is something they can do something about, but they won't bother with it.

Santiago Cisneros never dreamed he'd have trouble adjusting to civilian life again.

"It took a while to realize I was dealing with PTSD because I didn't know what post-traumatic stress disorder was. I had no clue"

Army Combat Veteran Santiago Cisneros tried to kill himself just eight months after leaving Iraq.

"I fought a war back there in Iraq. I didn't know I was going to have to fight a war back here in the United States within myself," says Santiago.

Shattered soldiers say there was no help when they needed it
Shattered soldiers say there was no help when they needed it
"I probably need to get some help before I slit your throats while you're sleeping." That's what a now AWOL Fort Lewis soldier said he told his command staff before he tried to kill his sergeant in Iraq. Even after the alleged attack, the soldier said, the Army never got him any mental help.
By Liz Rocca

My job was to kick down doors."
His Army buddies called him "K-10." On the dusty streets of Iraq he had one goal: "Find insurgents and punish them. Period."

K-10 can't use his real name because now he's a fugitive - a deserter. With just three weeks left in the Army, K-10 went AWOL from the Fort Lewis Post when, he says, the flashbacks of battle became more than he could bear.

"I never had nightmares before I went to Iraq," says K-10.

Another soldier, who now goes by the fictitious name of Arthur Smith, says he was so tortured by terrifying nightmares he went AWOL from the National Guard.

"I would wake up shaking, I would wake up sweating," he says. "I would have dreams of being gunned down by other Army soldiers."

Army Combat Veteran Santiago Cisneros tried to kill himself just eight months after leaving Iraq.

"I fought a war back there in Iraq. I didn't know I was going to have to fight a war back here in the United States within myself," says Santiago.

All three men told the Problem Solvers they are shattered soldiers, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and didn't get the help they needed from the military they served.

Vietnam veterans gathering in Raleigh

Vietnam veterans gathering in Raleigh
By David Perlmutt
dperlmutt@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Thursday, Mar. 26, 2009
De Hillyer spent 13 months as a howitzer mechanic in Vietnam and returned home from war in February 1969 to a red-carpet greeting by World War II and Korean War veterans.

His welcome didn't last for long. At El Toro Marine Air Station in California, he and other returned U.S. troops boarded a bus to Los Angeles, where they were met by anti-war protesters.

"It was a less-than-memorable welcome. They were shouting obscenities and spitting at us," said Hillyer, now a retired United Methodist minister from Charlotte. "It was scary; I just wanted to get out of my uniform. That happened to a lot of Vietnam veterans when they came home.

"Many veterans still don't feel they've been welcomed home."

That was the intent of a resolution passed by the U.S. House earlier this week that proclaims March 29 as "Vietnam Veterans Day" -- a recognition that veterans returning from America's longest war didn't come home to parades.

But apparently the resolution came too late for this March 29. Few Charlotte-area Vietnam vets know about it.

Saturday, the N.C. Vietnam Veterans Inc. is holding its first annual "Welcome Home -- Vietnam Veterans Day" event in Raleigh at the Raleigh Elks Lodge #735. The event is from noon to 4 p.m. at Lead Mine and Millbrook roads.

All N.C. Vietnam veterans and spouses are invited. There will be fellowship, barbecue and music. Sunday, a church service will be held to honor those who served and those who didn't come home.

Hillyer had to stumble onto the event and the House resolution. He's found no one in Charlotte who knows about either. A few states such as Minnesota, Tennessee and New York have proclaimed the day as a recognition for sacrifices made by their veterans in Vietnam.
go here for more
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/breaking/story/624868.html

Orlando soldier surprises children with early return from Iraq

Orlando soldier surprises children with early return from Iraq
March 26, 2009



go here for story
Orlando soldier surprises children with early return from Iraq

President Obama urges Americans to support war vets

Just to give you some kind of idea how many "troops" that will become veterans, read this from the DOD and see what the numbers were in 2007.

From the Department of Defense
Executive Summary
2007 Demographics Report i
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This Demographics Report, which was prepared for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD),presents a synthesis of demographic information describing members and families in the military community in fiscal year 20071. Active Duty Service branches include DoD’s Army,Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force; and the Reserve Components include DoD’s Army National Guard, Army Reserve, Navy Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Coast Guard Reserve.

Overview of Military Personnel
The total number of military personnel is over 3.5 million strong, including Active Duty military personnel (1,365,571);
DHS’s Active Duty Coast Guard members (40,650);
DoD Ready Reserve and DHS Coast Guard Reserve members (1,088,587); and
DoD appropriated and nonappropriated-fund civilian personnel (804,770).
DoD’s Active Duty and DHS’s Coast Guard
Active Duty members comprise the largest portion of the military force (40.0%), supplemented by Ready Reserve members (31.0%) and DoD civilian personnel (22.9%).

Active Duty: Member and Family Highlights
Service Branches. The Army has the largest number of Active Duty members (517,783)
followed by the Navy (332,269), the Air Force (329,094) and the Marine Corps (186,425). There are also 40,650 Active Duty members of the DHS’s Coast Guard. At a total of 1,406,221 DoD Active Duty and DHS Coast Guard Service members, the military force of 2007 is 31.9 percent smaller than it was in 1990 (when there were 2,065,597 Active Duty members). In the past seventeen years, the number of DoD Active Duty members in each Service branch has declined by as little as 5.1 percent in the Marine Corps to as much as 42.1 percent in the Navy. The Active Duty decline from 1990 to 2007 in the Army, Air Force, and Coast Guard is 28.9 percent,38.0 percent, and 12.0 percent, respectively.

Women comprise 195,991 or 14.4 percent of the DoD Active Duty force. The percent
of women in the Active Duty population is greater in 2007 than it was in 1990 (from 11.5% of officers and 10.9% of enlisted in 1990, to 15.2% of officers and 14.2% of enlisted members in 2007). Overall, the number and ratio of female officers (33,567) to female enlisted (162,424) is one female officer for every 4.8 female enlisted members. This ratio varies across the military Services with the Air Force retaining one female officer for every 4.4 female enlisted personnel, the Army retaining one female officer for every 4.6 female enlisted personnel, the Navy retaining
one female officer for every 5.4 female enlisted personnel, and the Marine Corps retaining one female officer for every 9.3 female enlisted personnel.

Women comprise 146,914 or 17.6 percent of the Selected Reserve force. The
percent of women in the Selected Reserve has continuously increased over the past seventeen years (from 14.4% of officers and 12.8% of enlisted in 1990, to 18.0% of officers and 17.5% of enlisted in 2007). Overall, the ratio of female officers (22,395) to female enlisted (124,519) is one female officer for every 5.6 female enlisted members. This ratio varies widely across the Selected Reserve with the Air Force Reserve having one female officer for every 3.1 female enlisted personnel, the Coast Guard Reserve having one female officer for every 3.3 female enlisted personnel, the Army Reserve having one female officer for every 4.2 female enlisted
personnel, the Navy Reserve having one female officer for every 4.6 female enlisted personnel, the Air National Guard having one female officer for every 7.3 female enlisted personnel, the Marine Corps Reserve having one female officer for every 8.4 female enlisted personnel, and the Army National Guard having one female officer for every 10.3 female enlisted personnel.


Age. Almost one fourth (23.8%) of Active Duty officers are 41 years of age or older, with the next largest age group being 26 to 30 year-olds (21.3%), followed by 36 to 40 year-olds (20.4%), 31 to 35 year-olds (20.2%), and those 25 years old or younger (14.2%). More than one half (52.5%) of Active Duty enlisted personnel are 25 years old or younger, with the next largest age group being 26 to 30 year-olds (20.1%), followed by 31 to 35 year-olds (12.1%), 36 to 40 year-olds (9.7%) and those 41 years old or older (5.6%). Overall, the average age of the Active Duty force is 28.3. The average age for Active Duty officers is 34.6, and the average age for enlisted personnel is 27.1.

Geographic Location. While the Active Duty population is located throughout the world, the three primary areas in which Active Duty members are assigned are the United States and its territories (85.3%), Europe (6.3%) and East Asia (5.7%). The ten states with the highest Active Duty military populations are California (149,586), Virginia (132,286), Texas (123,577), North Carolina (96,797), Georgia (70,012), Florida (59,543), Washington (58,693), Hawaii (43,505), Kentucky (39,041), and South Carolina (38,979).



When the uniforms come off and the battles are supposed to be over for them, they find the new battles they have to fight for their lives are with the government itself. Again, a reminder that Veterans for Common Sense issued a report stating the backlog of VA Claims is close to 900,000. We've talk about what this means to them and their families while they fight to have their claims approved. What we don't talk often enough about is the fact the American people are oblivious to most of this. It's not that they don't care but it is the media has not taken the time to focus on them. When you have MTV doing more hard hitting stories on their lives and what combat has done to them, we have a serious problem in this country. CNN, MSNBC and FOX have 24 hours to fill, 7 days a week. The rest of the national stations have daily broadcasts they need to fill but none of them are focusing on our veterans.

It's one of the biggest reasons why the communities these men and women come home, especially the National Guards and Reservists, no one has a clue what it's like for them.

Obama urges Americans to support war vets

The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Mar 26, 2009 13:46:21 EDT

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says when it comes to making sure returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan have the support they need, government can’t do the job alone.

He says communities and churches need to reach out to veterans and celebrate their return, and that businesses need to make jobs available to them.

Obama noted that, in many cases, veterans returning from Vietnam weren’t treated well. He called that “inexcusable.”

Obama repeated his support for increased funding for veterans programs, and the treatment of health problems such as post-traumatic stress.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/03/ap_obamavetsupport_032609/

New South Wales Police Officer died because no one listened

When it comes to suicide, why is it so hard to understand that if someone talks about it, there is a serious problem? How hard would it have been to talk to him and listen to him? The worst that could have happened is it turned out to be just talk instead of need for help. It happens all the time to police officers, firefighters and just regular civilians. It happens way too often to the troops and veterans. When will we ever get any of this right?

Mental health screenings urged after policeman's suicide

Posted 2 hours 13 minutes ago
The New South Wales deputy coroner has recommended senior police officers get regular mental health screenings after a Sergeant with post-traumatic stress disorder committed suicide in the Hunter Valley.

The 54-year-old man, who cannot be named, committed suicide near Maitland in June 2007. He was on sick leave from his job at a police station south of Newcastle at the time.
go here for more
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/27/2527657.htm?section=justin

Caring for Vets' Diseases, Stress Could Cost Canada $11.5 Billion

While this is about Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, keep in mind that our own media has been asleep instead of covering most of what our troops are going thru.

Caring for Vets' Diseases, Stress Could Cost Canada $11.5 Billion
Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

The true price of fighting in Afghanistan. First of two articles.
By Crawford Kilian

TheTyee.ca
Canada's price for fighting in Afghanistan has not yet been fully paid -- or even known. Liberal and Conservative governments have avoided reporting the cost of the war. But Carleton University researcher David Perry estimates that as of March 2009, Afghanistan has cost us $4.78 billion. By 2012, he says, the war will have cost us $7.55 billion.

Those killed in the war pay the highest price, of course, but the survivors pay too, without glory, for the rest of their lives.

This is the first in the The Real Costs of the War in Afghanistan seriesMore than 360 Canadians have come home wounded. More than 4,000 Canadian Forces veterans are receiving benefits for post-traumatic stress or "operational stress injuries." Thousands more, veterans and those currently serving, are dealing with PTSD and related problems on their own.

hepatitis A and E,
typhoid,
cholera,
malaria,
dengue,
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever,
tuberculosis,
West Nile virus,
typhus and others.
Even the dust of Kabul and Kandahar is a hazard, causing respiratory problems and skin lesions that can result in infections.

Leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease spread by sandflies, is a notably nasty illness

Pneumonia that won't quit
go here for more
http://thetyee.ca/News/2009/03/26/AfghanStress/

Showering in Iraq deadly enemy for troops

AP IMPACT: More bad wiring imperils troops in Iraq
By KIMBERLY HEFLING – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Military inspectors are racing to examine 90,000 U.S.-run facilities in Iraq with the goal of repairing electrical problems before more troops are electrocuted or shocked while showering or using appliances.

About one-third of the inspections so far have turned up major electrical problems, according to interviews and an internal military document obtained by The Associated Press. Half of the problems they found have since been fixed, but about 65,000 facilities still must be inspected, which could take the rest of this year. Senior Pentagon officials were on Capitol Hill this week for briefings on the findings.

The work assigned to Task Force SAFE, which oversees the inspections and repairs, is aimed at preventing deaths like that of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, of Pittsburgh. He died in January 2008, one of at least three soldiers killed while showering since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Scores more soldiers suffered shocks between September 2006 and July 2008, according to a database maintained by KBR Inc., the Houston-based contractor that oversees maintenance at most U.S. facilities in Iraq.

"We got a ton of buildings we know probably aren't safe and we just don't have them done yet," said Jim Childs, an electrician the task force hired to help with the inspections. "It's Russian roulette. I cringe every time I hear of a shock."
go here for more
AP IMPACT: More bad wiring imperils troops in Iraq