Vietnam vet is awarded Silver Star after 43 years
The Boyle Heights man hadn't received the medal for heroism because of lost paperwork. When the officer who recommended him found out, he doggedly worked to correct the oversight.
By Esmeralda Bermudez
October 4, 2009
It took 43 years, but Marine Pfc. Daniel Hernandez finally got his medal.
And when he did Saturday morning in Boyle Heights, the Vietnam veteran stood up straight and proudly puffed out his chest, his eyes glistening with emotion.
"His immediate and fearless actions, while himself painfully wounded, undoubtedly saved many lives," said Marine Lt. Jim Lupori, reading from the Silver Star medal citation that, because of lost paperwork, was never awarded to Hernandez by the secretary of the Navy after he left Vietnam in the late 1960s.
The four-decade wait only made the honor more meaningful to Hernandez, 63, as several hundred relatives, friends and fellow veterans gathered for a ceremony in his honor at the Hollenbeck Youth Center. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-East Los Angeles) and a host of other state and city leaders attended.
They came in support of a man they had known for decades as a community youth leader and president of the Hollenbeck Youth Center, which provides after-school programs to keep children away from gangs and drugs.
Few knew Hernandez also was a war hero.
"There's a difference between action heroes in movies and action heroes in real life," said Schwarzenegger, who has long collaborated with Hernandez on youth issues. "Danny is a real action hero."
read more here
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-medal4-2009oct04,0,3123760.story
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Bodies of soldiers killed in Afghanistan due back in U.S.
Bodies of soldiers killed in Afghanistan due back in U.S.
Story Highlights
NEW: Afghan security forces hunting down attackers kill insurgents in raids
Coffins of at least four U.S. soldiers due to return home
At least eight U.S. soldiers, two Afghan soldiers killed in attack in Nuristan province
Largest number of U.S. soldiers killed in single attack in more than a year
(CNN) -- The flag-draped coffins of at least four U.S. soldiers killed during a weekend onslaught against a U.S. military outpost in Afghanistan were scheduled to arrive Tuesday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the military said.
for more go here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/06/us.afghanistan.troops/index.html
Story Highlights
NEW: Afghan security forces hunting down attackers kill insurgents in raids
Coffins of at least four U.S. soldiers due to return home
At least eight U.S. soldiers, two Afghan soldiers killed in attack in Nuristan province
Largest number of U.S. soldiers killed in single attack in more than a year
(CNN) -- The flag-draped coffins of at least four U.S. soldiers killed during a weekend onslaught against a U.S. military outpost in Afghanistan were scheduled to arrive Tuesday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the military said.
according to the Air Force mortuary affairs office. The dignified transfer ceremony also might include other fallen service members.The bodies will include
Sgt. Joshua J. Kirk of South Portland, Maine;
Spc. Michael P. Scusa of Villas, New Jersey;
Spc. Christopher T. Griffin of Kincheloe, Michigan; and
Pfc. Kevin C. Thomson of Reno, Nevada
for more go here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/06/us.afghanistan.troops/index.html
Monday, October 5, 2009
Army continues criminal probes into Iraq electrocutions
Army continues criminal probes into Iraq electrocutions
By Lisa M. Novak, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, October 4, 2009
It was near 100 degrees on May 8, 2004, when Spc. Chase Whitham and a few other soldiers decided to cool off in the swimming pool at Forward Operating Base Patriot in Mosul, Iraq.
A junior officer had recently renovated the pool, but a battalion commander had placed the pool off-limits until final precautions could be made.
No signs were posted, so Whitham and the others jumped in. The 21-year-old from Oregon was electrocuted when he touched a metal pipe that was circulating the pool water. It was later determined that the water pump had shorted and was not properly grounded.
Whitham was one of the first Americans to be killed by electrical problems at U.S. bases in Iraq.
read more here
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=65180
By Lisa M. Novak, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, October 4, 2009
It was near 100 degrees on May 8, 2004, when Spc. Chase Whitham and a few other soldiers decided to cool off in the swimming pool at Forward Operating Base Patriot in Mosul, Iraq.
A junior officer had recently renovated the pool, but a battalion commander had placed the pool off-limits until final precautions could be made.
No signs were posted, so Whitham and the others jumped in. The 21-year-old from Oregon was electrocuted when he touched a metal pipe that was circulating the pool water. It was later determined that the water pump had shorted and was not properly grounded.
Whitham was one of the first Americans to be killed by electrical problems at U.S. bases in Iraq.
read more here
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=65180
2 in custody after reports of armed men on South Florida campus
2 in custody after reports of armed men on South Florida campus
Story Highlights
NEW: Campus police question 2 men after incidents on school campus Monday
Report of armed intruder on the University of South Florida campus in Tampa, Florida
Police received a report of person armed with bomb, gun near the library
USF police say say no one was hurt, no shots were fired
(CNN) -- Campus police at the University of South Florida were questioning two men in connection with back-to-back incidents on the school campus Monday.
Investigators were questioning one man following a report of an armed intruder, USF police Lt. Meg Ross said. And a second man was also being questioned following a report of a man carrying a large hunting knife and a puppy, she said.
USF police asked the Tampa police's bomb team to respond to the campus regarding a backpack belonging to man in the first incident, said Ross. No one was hurt, she said, and no shots were fired.
"We have someone we think may have been involved," Ross told CNN, "but we have to investigate fully."
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/05/south.florida.intruder/index.html
Story Highlights
NEW: Campus police question 2 men after incidents on school campus Monday
Report of armed intruder on the University of South Florida campus in Tampa, Florida
Police received a report of person armed with bomb, gun near the library
USF police say say no one was hurt, no shots were fired
(CNN) -- Campus police at the University of South Florida were questioning two men in connection with back-to-back incidents on the school campus Monday.
Investigators were questioning one man following a report of an armed intruder, USF police Lt. Meg Ross said. And a second man was also being questioned following a report of a man carrying a large hunting knife and a puppy, she said.
USF police asked the Tampa police's bomb team to respond to the campus regarding a backpack belonging to man in the first incident, said Ross. No one was hurt, she said, and no shots were fired.
"We have someone we think may have been involved," Ross told CNN, "but we have to investigate fully."
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/05/south.florida.intruder/index.html
Congratulations to Military Times
Military Times Web site wins journalism award
Staff report
Posted : Monday Oct 5, 2009 16:40:10 EDT
MilitaryTimes.com has been honored for its service to the far-flung military community.
The Web site won “Best Large Specialty Site,” one of the 2009 Online Journalism Awards given Sunday by the Online News Association during its conference in San Francisco.
M. Scott Mahaskey, Military Times’ managing editor for interactive and visual coverage, accepted the award.
The organization of online journalists and academics, founded in 1999, praised MilitaryTimes.com for both its content and design.
“This site is cleanly designed and easy to navigate. It has a unique challenge in that it does serve a community, but not one with a geographic centre — the type of challenge for which the Internet is perfect,” the organization wrote. “This is a virtual meeting place for people in the military, where they can catch up on news of professional and personal interest, exchange stories and advice, and honor their colleagues and their service.”
The awards are administered by the Online News Association, in partnership with the University of Miami’s School of Communication, and are funded in part by the Gannett Foundation. Gannett Corp. is the parent company of Military Times.
MilitaryTimes.com is part of the Military Times family of Web sites, which includes AirForceTimes.com, ArmyTimes.com, MarineCorpsTimes.com and NavyTimes.com.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_times_online_award_100509w/
Staff report
Posted : Monday Oct 5, 2009 16:40:10 EDT
MilitaryTimes.com has been honored for its service to the far-flung military community.
The Web site won “Best Large Specialty Site,” one of the 2009 Online Journalism Awards given Sunday by the Online News Association during its conference in San Francisco.
M. Scott Mahaskey, Military Times’ managing editor for interactive and visual coverage, accepted the award.
The organization of online journalists and academics, founded in 1999, praised MilitaryTimes.com for both its content and design.
“This site is cleanly designed and easy to navigate. It has a unique challenge in that it does serve a community, but not one with a geographic centre — the type of challenge for which the Internet is perfect,” the organization wrote. “This is a virtual meeting place for people in the military, where they can catch up on news of professional and personal interest, exchange stories and advice, and honor their colleagues and their service.”
The awards are administered by the Online News Association, in partnership with the University of Miami’s School of Communication, and are funded in part by the Gannett Foundation. Gannett Corp. is the parent company of Military Times.
MilitaryTimes.com is part of the Military Times family of Web sites, which includes AirForceTimes.com, ArmyTimes.com, MarineCorpsTimes.com and NavyTimes.com.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_times_online_award_100509w/
Military men and the secrets they carry
Military Men Silent on Sexual Assaults
October 05, 2009
Virginian-Pilot
For years after the parachute accident that ended his Army service, Cody Openshaw spiraled downward.
He entered college but couldn't keep up with his studies. He had trouble holding a job. He drank too much. He had trouble sleeping, and when he did sleep, he had nightmares. He got married and divorced in less than a year. He had flashbacks. He isolated himself from his friends and drank more.
"His anxiety level was out of this world," his father said. "This was a young man who got straight A's in high school, and now he couldn't function."
Openshaw had the classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, even though he had never been in combat. His parents attributed the trauma to the accident and the heavy medications he was taking for the continuing pain.
But there was more.
Finally, he broke down and told his father.
A few months after his accident, as he was awaiting his medical discharge from the Army, he had been sexually assaulted.
The attack left him physically injured and emotionally shattered. Inhibited by shame, embarrassment, sexual confusion and fear, it took him five years to come forward with the full story.
What truly sets this story apart, however, is not the details of the case, horrific as they are, but the gender of the victim.
There is a widespread presumption that most victims of sexual assault in the military services are women. That presumption, however, is false.
In a 2006 survey of active-duty troops, 6.8 percent of women and 1.8 percent of men said they had experienced unwanted sexual contact in the previous 12 months. Since there are far more men than women in the services, that translates into roughly 22,000 men and 14,000 women.
read more here
Military Men Silent on Sexual Assaults
October 05, 2009
Virginian-Pilot
For years after the parachute accident that ended his Army service, Cody Openshaw spiraled downward.
He entered college but couldn't keep up with his studies. He had trouble holding a job. He drank too much. He had trouble sleeping, and when he did sleep, he had nightmares. He got married and divorced in less than a year. He had flashbacks. He isolated himself from his friends and drank more.
"His anxiety level was out of this world," his father said. "This was a young man who got straight A's in high school, and now he couldn't function."
Openshaw had the classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, even though he had never been in combat. His parents attributed the trauma to the accident and the heavy medications he was taking for the continuing pain.
But there was more.
Finally, he broke down and told his father.
A few months after his accident, as he was awaiting his medical discharge from the Army, he had been sexually assaulted.
The attack left him physically injured and emotionally shattered. Inhibited by shame, embarrassment, sexual confusion and fear, it took him five years to come forward with the full story.
What truly sets this story apart, however, is not the details of the case, horrific as they are, but the gender of the victim.
There is a widespread presumption that most victims of sexual assault in the military services are women. That presumption, however, is false.
In a 2006 survey of active-duty troops, 6.8 percent of women and 1.8 percent of men said they had experienced unwanted sexual contact in the previous 12 months. Since there are far more men than women in the services, that translates into roughly 22,000 men and 14,000 women.
read more here
Military Men Silent on Sexual Assaults
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Mold turned Orlando man's 'castle' into 'house of horrors'
Mold turned Orlando man's 'castle' into 'house of horrors'
Jean Patteson
Sentinel Staff Writer
October 4, 2009
When he moved into his lakefront dream house, Ronald Brooke was hale and hearty. One year later, he was a sick man.
"My castle ended up being a house of horrors," said Brooke, 65, founder of Brooke Enterprises, a money-management company in Orlando.
He bought the two-story house near the University of Central Florida for $245,000 in June 1997. His nightmare experience began that December, when storm water cascaded through the roof into the family room. Soon afterward, leaks were found in the upstairs shower, around several windows and behind the front and rear gutters. Brooke had the roof repaired and the rotted windowsills replaced. But a fertile breeding ground for mold had already been created in the damp, dark spaces behind the walls.
read more here
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/mold-sufferer-100409,0,4621954.story
Jean Patteson
Sentinel Staff Writer
October 4, 2009
When he moved into his lakefront dream house, Ronald Brooke was hale and hearty. One year later, he was a sick man.
"My castle ended up being a house of horrors," said Brooke, 65, founder of Brooke Enterprises, a money-management company in Orlando.
He bought the two-story house near the University of Central Florida for $245,000 in June 1997. His nightmare experience began that December, when storm water cascaded through the roof into the family room. Soon afterward, leaks were found in the upstairs shower, around several windows and behind the front and rear gutters. Brooke had the roof repaired and the rotted windowsills replaced. But a fertile breeding ground for mold had already been created in the damp, dark spaces behind the walls.
read more here
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/mold-sufferer-100409,0,4621954.story
Satellite Beach FL soldier killed in Afghanistan
Satellite Beach soldier killed in Afghanistan
Sentinel Staff Writer
1:13 a.m. EDT, October 4, 2009
A soldier from Central Florida was killed in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced late Saturday.
Sgt. Roberto D. Sanchez, 24, of Satellite Beach, died Oct. 1 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
Sanchez was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Hunter Army Airfield, Savannah, Ga.
Satellite Beach soldier killed in Afghanistan
Sentinel Staff Writer
1:13 a.m. EDT, October 4, 2009
A soldier from Central Florida was killed in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced late Saturday.
Sgt. Roberto D. Sanchez, 24, of Satellite Beach, died Oct. 1 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
Sanchez was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Hunter Army Airfield, Savannah, Ga.
Satellite Beach soldier killed in Afghanistan
Step away from the whole and everyone gets hurt
Get away from the people you almost died with, end up isolated and alone. The wholeness of the unit is broken. There is something missing.
Get away from the person you always thought you were, end up isolated and alone, but top that off with not being comfortable in your own skin. There is a stranger there instead of the person you thought you were.
When you live on an island all by yourself, you can just pretend to be someone else, but when you live in the real world, with family and friends, the changes in you hurt them. It's not just about "you" hurting.
A Marine comes home after his world view has been changed forever. A lifetime of pretending to be a hero with video games replaced by life changing reality where there is no reset button restoring people back to life. There is just the exasperating reset button in your brain doing it for you so the event can be resurrected just long enough to torture you. You try to take yourself out of the "picture" playing head games with yourself only to find out, the more you try to pull away, the more emotionally dragged in you become.
In the process of transformation from Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry to John McClane Die Hard, somewhere in the middle was the "you" everyone knew. You were the kid they watched grow up, heard what made you laugh, saw what made you cry, knew what you liked to eat and what would eat away at you. Your family thought they knew everything about you. Your friends thought you'd never change. When you got back from training, you were like Andy, still, pretty much the same as when you left. When you got back from a year in combat, there was not much of "you" left inside. At least not the person everyone thought they knew including yourself.
Get away from the person you always thought you were, end up isolated and alone, but top that off with not being comfortable in your own skin. There is a stranger there instead of the person you thought you were.
When you live on an island all by yourself, you can just pretend to be someone else, but when you live in the real world, with family and friends, the changes in you hurt them. It's not just about "you" hurting.
A Marine comes home after his world view has been changed forever. A lifetime of pretending to be a hero with video games replaced by life changing reality where there is no reset button restoring people back to life. There is just the exasperating reset button in your brain doing it for you so the event can be resurrected just long enough to torture you. You try to take yourself out of the "picture" playing head games with yourself only to find out, the more you try to pull away, the more emotionally dragged in you become.
In the process of transformation from Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry to John McClane Die Hard, somewhere in the middle was the "you" everyone knew. You were the kid they watched grow up, heard what made you laugh, saw what made you cry, knew what you liked to eat and what would eat away at you. Your family thought they knew everything about you. Your friends thought you'd never change. When you got back from training, you were like Andy, still, pretty much the same as when you left. When you got back from a year in combat, there was not much of "you" left inside. At least not the person everyone thought they knew including yourself.
Pvt. Travis Hafterson, 21, of Circle Pines, was released from Ramsey County jail into military custody Thursday, hours before a court ordered him to be civilly committed in abstentia for a twice-diagnosed case of post traumatic stress syndrome. (Courtesy Hafterson family)
Family fears Circle Pines Marine won't get treatment after being whisked to N.C.
By Tad Vezner
tvezner@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 10/02/2009 07:48:31 AM CDT
Military mother Jamie Hafterson has one thought about her U.S. Marine son getting treatment at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina for post-traumatic stress disorder.
"I don't think they're going to treat him," said Hafterson, a member of the Minnesota Patriot Guard. "Civilian is civilian, and military is military — especially with the few and the proud."
Pvt. Travis Hafterson, of Circle Pines, who had been AWOL for roughly a month and a half — which, after 30 days, officially made him a deserter — turned himself in at Fort Snelling on Monday. The hope of his family and attorney was that he would receive psychiatric treatment in Minnesota and then be sent to Camp Lejeune for punishment, which he accepted.
Instead, Hafterson, 21, was released to the military from Ramsey County Jail on Thursday morning and taken to Camp Lejeune. Even though Hafterson wasn't in Minnesota, on Thursday afternoon a Ramsey County District Court judge ruled to commit Hafterson — in absentia — to six months of treatment at Regions Hospital.
Part of what the judge considered was that Hafterson has been diagnosed twice with post-traumatic stress disorder in the past week — including once by a jail psychiatrist.
"It got all complicated — he was going to turn himself in. We just wanted to be sure he was treated," his mother said.
A spokesperson at Camp Lejeune could not be reached for comment late Thursday.
read more here
http://www.twincities.com/ci_13467500?source=most_viewed
He is not so much unlike any of us except he was exposed to what we have not been exposed to. No, you cannot compare even the same event with them because you are not them.
We may look the same on the outside, just as these wires pretty much do, but when the outer covering comes off, what is exposed is all that went into making us who we are. Every life experience is in there, wrapped inside the shell we trust will protect us. The shell others judge us by when they walk by us on the street. Just as there are many different sizes of cables put together for different purposes, there are also many different types and sizes of cutters to take them apart. The cutters are our life events.
You may have gone through one experience just as they did, but you did not go through all of them and that is the biggest difference of all. You are not them. Your past is your past, just as their's is. Today you may walk away from a traumatic event believing you are better, stronger, smarter, more prepared than someone else, but what you don't think about is, what else they have gone through you have yet to be tested by.
You won't see how deep their pain is any more than you can see how deep their compassion is. You don't know how spiritual they are, how many times their faith has been supported or how many times their faith has been exposed to the elements.
You don't know how many excuses they are looking for to dismiss what they have going on inside of themselves. Anything they can blame other than their own core because they cannot escape that. If they cannot escape that, then there is no hope in their own minds. They need to know there is hope still inside of the covering they hide behind. That hope comes with being able to see past the casing and see into the soul. Once you can do that, once you stop judging them, once you can stop feeling superior to them, then and only then will we truly find what will heal them. Until then, we are just spinning in circles pretending we are trying to fix what we don't understand.
This is one of the biggest reasons all the programs they have come out with don't work. They never understood what makes us all different under the skin.
Soldiers face challenges after returning home
Soldiers face challenges after returning home
Nahum Lopez
Section: News
With troops returning home daily from Iraq and Afghanistan the Texas Work force Commission, Veterans Affairs and the state of Texas have joined together to help soldiers reintegrate back into society.
"Not every one can carry the burdens we live with on a daily basis, " said Navy Corpsmen SGT. Euclides Misael Lopez, 26, of Port Arthur, TX who served in combat in Afghanistan in 2008-2009.
TWC is linking soldiers with the local Veterans Administration to help nurse the soldier back to mental health through several different programs.
"We didn't have these benefits the guys coming back now have. We had the same PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and some of us got over it, and some of us didn't and still have problems," said Air Force Technical Sgt. Nat Arriola who served in Vietnam in 1968-1969.
Arriola is also the Veterans Employment Representative for the East Texas Workforce Center.
Young recruits go in knowing that they will accomplish more than they ever expected. They bring with them perceived limits and learn to overcome them. However, many return home shell-shocked or suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
read more here
Soldiers face challenges after returning home
Nahum Lopez
Section: News
With troops returning home daily from Iraq and Afghanistan the Texas Work force Commission, Veterans Affairs and the state of Texas have joined together to help soldiers reintegrate back into society.
"Not every one can carry the burdens we live with on a daily basis, " said Navy Corpsmen SGT. Euclides Misael Lopez, 26, of Port Arthur, TX who served in combat in Afghanistan in 2008-2009.
TWC is linking soldiers with the local Veterans Administration to help nurse the soldier back to mental health through several different programs.
"We didn't have these benefits the guys coming back now have. We had the same PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and some of us got over it, and some of us didn't and still have problems," said Air Force Technical Sgt. Nat Arriola who served in Vietnam in 1968-1969.
Arriola is also the Veterans Employment Representative for the East Texas Workforce Center.
Young recruits go in knowing that they will accomplish more than they ever expected. They bring with them perceived limits and learn to overcome them. However, many return home shell-shocked or suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
read more here
Soldiers face challenges after returning home
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