Oakland Police Officer Joshua Smith's life saved by badge

Oakland Police Officer Joshua Smith's life saved by badge
A police officer survives being shot at point blank range due to his badge. WMC's Lori Brown reports.

Well that was the story but one of Wounded Times readers left a comment with what happened after this was posted. Here it is!

Former Oakland officer pleads guilty to lying about shooting

Action 5 News
By Nick Kenney
Published: Dec. 9, 2010

OAKLAND, TN (WMC-TV) - A former Oakland police officer pleaded guilty Thursday to making up a story about his badge stopping a bullet and saving his life.

Last December, Joshua Smith claimed his police badge stopped a bullet during a Christmas Eve traffic stop on Highway 64 in Oakland.

Smith told investigators a passenger got out of the stopped car and swung a knife at him. As he subdued the man, Smith said, the driver pulled out a gun and shot at him.

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Memo used to disqualify soldiers with PTSD from getting benefits

Pentagon limits law's pledge to its wounded veterans

Noncombat injuries keep many from aid

By Amanda Carpenter

Veterans groups hailed the passage last year of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which made it easier for wounded soldiers to have their injuries rated and treated by the federal government.

But less than a year after President Bush signed the bill, the Defense Department interpreted the law in a way that reduced its scope and denied many veterans the benefits they thought they had been promised.

The Pentagon's interpretation, which veterans groups are challenging, is laid out in two memos written in 2008 by David S.C. Chu, who was undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

The effect of the memos, which have been obtained by The Washington Times, is to disqualify numerous soldiers who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder from receiving medical benefits and to prevent others from receiving extra pay that the NDAA promised to veterans with combat-related injuries.

In drafting the NDAA, Congress relied on the recommendations of a bipartisan panel headed by former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala.
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Pentagon limits law's pledge to its wounded veterans

Community mourns after deputy wounded in ambush dies

Community mourns after deputy wounded in ambush dies

by KING Staff

Posted on December 28, 2009 at 4:23 PM

SEATTLE – The law enforcement community is mourning another loss after Pierce County Sheriff's Deputy Kent Mundell, critically wounded in a shootout a week ago, died Monday night.

Mundell's family was at his side Monday evening at Harborview Medical Center when doctors turned off life support. Officials say Dep. Mundell passed quickly and died at 5:04 p.m.

Dozens of deputies and police officers from at least six law enforcement agencies filed into Harborview Monday afternoon in the hours before Mundell died.
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Community mourns after deputy wounded in ambush dies

Female aircrew eager for Afghan mission

Female aircrew eager for Afghan mission
(CNN) - Sgt. Stephanie Cole joined Britain's Royal Air Force more than three years ago to fly into battle - and not, as she says, to stay on the ground and "fly a desk."

Soon, she'll finally get to do what she signed up for - working on a helicopter crew in dusty and rugged southern Afghanistan, where British, U.S., other international forces and Afghan soldiers are slugging it out with Taliban militants.

"I'm looking forward to it," said Cole, 24 (on the far left in the photo above).

She will be among four female air crew members deployed to a pool of more than 100 pilots and loadmasters beginning New Year's Day to handle the newly-deployed Merlin helicopters in battle-scarred Helmand province, a haven for insurgents and an illegal drug trade.


The other three are pilots Flight Lt. Michelle Goodman, 32, the first woman to win Britain's Distinguished Flying Cross for her actions in Iraq; Flight Lt. Joanna Watkinson, 29; and loadmaster Sgt. Wendy Donald, 31 (pictured left to right after Cole). Three others are still in training.
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Female aircrew eager for Afghan mission

Lab works to solve Korean War MIA mysteries

Lab works to solve Korean War MIA mysteries

By William Cole - Honolulu Advertiser via Gannett News Service
Posted : Tuesday Dec 29, 2009 7:03:15 EST

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — The mottled brown skull and other remains — a lower jaw with eight teeth and a pair of fillings, seven right side ribs, part of a pelvis and some arm and leg bones — showed evidence of dirt and looked like they were buried at one time.

It’s up to forensic anthropologists like Gregory Berg to build from the ground up the U.S. service member who died in North Korea more than half a century ago.

There are plenty of challenges to doing so faced by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, but there’s been a big advance relating to Korean War fallen, and a new Pentagon impetus to speed up all identifications.

In September, the Hawaii-based accounting command, charged with investigating, recovering and identifying missing U.S. war dead, opened a new lab at Pearl Harbor devoted to identifying Korean War remains. About 8,100 Americans remain missing from the Korean War.
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Lab works to solve Korean War MIA mysteries

USS Cole survivor died after years of PTSD

Obituary: Johann Gokool of Homestead, victim of attack on the USS Cole

BY ELINOR J. BRECHER
ebrecher@MiamiHerald.com
The October 2000 terrorist assault on the USS Cole killed 17 sailors and injured 39, among them Petty Officer 3rd Class Johann Gokool of Homestead, an electronic warfare technician who lost his left leg.

Last Wednesday, a week after his 31th birthday, Gokool transitioned from survivor to victim. Relatives say he died in his bed, apparently during one of the violent panic attacks that had plagued him since the incident.

His younger brother found Gokool about 7 p.m. on Dec. 23 in the house they shared. Medical examiners still haven't said what killed him, but relatives believe that a deadly attack stopped his heart.

The U.S. Navy classified Gokool 100 percent disabled due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The attacks came without warning, lasting from a few minutes to hours, and because of them, Gokool couldn't work, drive or even bowl -- his favorite pastime.

``He was afraid of having an attack with a ball in his hand,'' said his sister, Natala, 29. ``I'll pick him up to go somewhere and he'll sit in the back seat so if he has an attack, he won't distract or hurt me.''

Gokool, say relatives, frequently stayed up all night chatting online with military buddies around the world, During the day, ``he couldn't make plans,'' his sister said. ``He didn't like to be in public in strange places . . . He'd be stuck in his room for days. He lived like an owl.''

He talked about the explosion ``all the time,'' she said. ``Anybody who would listen, he would talk.''
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Johann Gokool of Homestead, victim of attack on the USS Cole

Mom fights to be buried with soldier son

What is she asking for that could be viewed as any kind of issue? She wants to make sure she can be buried with her son and that's all. Why is this a problem at all? This is what she feels will give her a bit of comfort while she still lives. Is this too much to ask for?

Mom fights to be buried with soldier son

By Andrew Miga - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Dec 29, 2009 9:16:04 EST

WASHINGTON — Denise Anderson lost her only son in the Iraq war. She’s determined not to lose her fight to be buried with him in a national veterans cemetery.

Army Spc. Corey Shea died Nov. 12, 2008, in Mosul, with about a month left on his tour of duty in Iraq. He was buried at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, about 50 miles from his hometown of Mansfield, Mass.

A grieving Anderson, 42, soon hit an obstacle in her quest to be buried in the same plot with her son. That chance is offered only to the spouses or children of dead veterans; Corey Shea was 21, single and childless.

The Veterans Affairs Department grants waivers and has approved four similar requests from dead soldiers’ parents since 2005.

Anderson also sought a waiver. But under the VA’s policy, she has to die first to get one, a limbo that Anderson finds tough to live with.
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Mom fights to be buried with soldier son

Families need education if they live with PTSD veterans

Families need education if they live with PTSD veterans
by
Chaplain Kathie

A National Guardsman's mom contacted me a while back. She was at her wits end. By the time she found me, her son had tried to commit suicide twice. His young family had fallen apart and he was divorced with two young children growing up without their Dad at home. He was being treated for PTSD, or should I say medicated for it because he did not receive therapy, had very little understanding of what was happening inside of him, living on the couch of a friend and wondering why he ended up the way he did. His wife couldn't understand either.

His Mom was lost, feeling confused finding out her son, the son she knew all of his life, was more like a stranger to her. She felt helpless, hopeless and alone not knowing where to turn or why she needed to do anything above worrying about her son.

She understands what PTSD is and he is now healing from the burden he's been trying to heal from. They have a long way to go but at least they are on the right track now.

This happens all the time. They leave home with one personality and return as strangers. War changes everyone. Being away in a strange land changes people but add in the chaos of combat, losing friends, seeing civilians die, no one returns exactly the same way they left.

Some recover from it, changed ever so slightly. Others lose their identity, their faith, their trust and hope of recovering. As time passes, their condition worsens, they are turned away from everyone in their family, the government will not provide them with what they need to recover, whatever is left evaporates to the point where only anger lives.

Had this Guardsman's family knew what was happening inside of him, the possibility of the family staying together would have been there but without the right kind of support the family needed, it all fell apart.

The Mom was able to understand PTSD and what she need to do to help her son. She was filled with regret because of all the years she didn't know what was happening to her son, but the truth was, she didn't know because no one ever told her.

We read blogs like this and assume everyone knows what PTSD is and that it is a wound to the soul. Yet when you talk to people about it, they don't have the slightest clue what it is.

I was talking to two women over Christmas weekend. One had a relative who acted strangely and the other woman worked with seniors in a hospital encountering many veterans. They said families don't understand it, turn their backs on the veterans or blame the veterans for how they act. None of this has to happen.

The families are key to all of this. From the time when the veteran comes home changed, they are the first to notice it but too many don't understand what they are seeing. They are the first to see the symptoms but if they don't understand what is behind the symptoms, they think the worst. From self-medicating with drugs and alcohol, to withdrawing from the family and avoidance of any kind of activities they used to enjoy, they also deal with the nightmares and flashbacks.

If they don't understand they blame the veteran instead of PTSD. They think they need to get rid of the veteran from their home instead of heal the veteran to save the veteran.

When they understand the love they have for their veteran turns them into an advocate fighting for what the veteran needs to heal and they demand it. The veteran loses the ability to fight for themselves, so they take over. They get doctors to listen. They get the service organizations to make sure VA claims are honored to the level appropriate to the wound. They make sure their kids understand what is going on and why their parent is acting the way they do and anyone getting in the way of their veteran healing had better be prepared for the wrath of a veteran's spouse.

We can keep talking about the rise in divorce, the rise in homelessness, the rise in suicides and attempted suicides but until we talk about the fact most families have no clue what PTSD is, we will keep seeing these numbers rise instead of going down.

“I thought, give me a couple days, I’ll be alright. I’m a Soldier,”

This is what most of them are like. They don't complain. Most of them do not ask for any help at all and this is what should upset us the most. If it is a physical wound, the thought of getting medical attention to help them heal faster offers them hope of getting back on duty faster. They tough it out as much as they can, most of the time far beyond where an average person would attempt to do. Yet when it is PTSD, they are the last to ask for help. When report after report came out that less than half of the servicemen and women with PTSD sought help, the rest of the nation should have noticed. Even today, there are people in this country under the delusion that "half of PTSD claims are bogus" because they failed to pay attention.

They are human like the rest of us but they are willing to do what few of us will do, yet we stand in judgment of them. We convince ourselves that the DOD and the VA are doing everything possible to take care of the wounded, as long as we don't have to lift a finger or heaven forbid, pay a few extra dollars on our taxes to make sure we take care of the men and women we send to risk their lives.

When you read this story, think about the type of people we're talking about while the rest of us whine, moan and complain about how hard our lives are, because for all the problems we have, they do as well, but we don't have to worry about getting wounded doing our duty because we let them do it all.

Wounded warriors receive food, cheer this season
By Joy Pariante, Sentinel Leisure Editor
December 24, 2009 News

He traveled within Iraq’s most volatile areas, but Sgt. 1st Class Robert Walker never thought he would be in even more danger on his own flight line.

Walker inspected attack helicopters to ensure they were safe to fly and prepared to fight. Following a mortar attack at Balad Air Base in August of 2005, Walker went out to determine if his aircraft had been damaged. Attack helicopters are used to protect other aircraft, military equipment and, most importantly, personnel.

While crossing the flight line, Walker’s vehicle was hit by a mortar. The non-commissioned officer was injured, but it would be years before he knew how severely his injuries would affect him. Despite continuous and intense pain in his neck and back, Walker served three consecutive tours in Iraq He wasn’t diagnosed or treated until June 2008.

“I thought, give me a couple days, I’ll be alright. I’m a Soldier,” Walker said.

Three years after the blast that left him in constant pain, Walker discovered he had a compression fracture of his neck, which would require surgery. After he was evacuated from Iraq, he underwent spinal fusion surgery, which left him with limited mobility and a metal plate in his neck. Any wrong moves before surgery could have left Walker paralyzed from the neck down.
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http://www.forthoodsentinel.com/story.php?id=2777

Clayton M. Rankin Colorado Army National Guard, Bronze Star with Valor

Clayton M. Rankin Colorado Army National Guard, Bronze Star with Valor

Northern Kuwait

By Kris Antonelli © Stephens Media LLC 2009 www.americanvalor.net

Clay Rankin, a police officer in suburban Denver, knew what it was like to kill even before he was sent to the Middle East in the first Gulf War. He and a fellow officer fatally shot a man who had taken a pharmacy clerk hostage in 1990.

But a year later, the military police officer returned to his job as a civilian police officer with the Northglenn, Colo., Police Department with grim scenes of burning oil fields and charred bodies stuck in his mind. Old haunts, familiar streets and routine police work were distorted by the memories of war. He had nightmares, anxiety and flashbacks. He un-holstered his gun during routine traffic stops. One night, while sitting in his cruiser in a parking lot and completing paperwork, he heard a noise behind him.


“I opened the door, rolled out on my stomach and took my gun out,” Rankin said. “It was a just a kid walking across the parking lot.”

The department’s psychologist diagnosed him with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Rankin didn’t believe it. His symptoms had to be a reaction to the toxin gases he was exposed to during his tour.

“I just chalked it all up — the nightmares, the flashbacks, my over-reactions — to the change, because you never come back the same,” he said.

Although the police chief tried to find an assignment that would take Rankin off the street, it was not possible in a small agency such as Northglenn’s. He had no choice but to retire.

Finally, in 1995, his marriage and family life strained by his recurring symptoms, he went to a veterans administration hospital looking specifically for PTSD treatment. In therapy, he learned techniques to manage his symptoms. His health and personal life improved. He started a private investigation business, which became successful.

But at the start of the second Gulf War, Rankin’s passion for law enforcement led him to join the National Guard as a military police officer. He believed he was well enough to handle redeploying with his old unit to Iraq. He landed at Camp Udairi, in northern Kuwait at the Iraqi border, just as the ground war began. Standing in line at the PX in March, Rankin waited to get supplies needed to push north when a terrorist in a white pick-up truck plowed through the line.
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Clayton M. Rankin Colorado Army National Guard, Bronze Star with Valor

Donation saves memorial for Vietnam War fallen

Donation saves memorial for slain vets
Updated: Sunday, 27 Dec 2009, 11:53 PM MST
Published : Sunday, 27 Dec 2009, 11:25 PM MST

Reporter: Crystal Gutierrez
Web Producer: Devon Armijo
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Thanks to a generous donation, a new traveling memorial to honor New Mexicans killed in the Vietnam War will be built.

Many New Mexican families will never get to make the trip to Washington’s Vietnam Memorial, and that's why many say the new memorial means so much.

399 soldiers will soon be memorialized on a traveling wall.

“This wall will designate that they are from New Mexico,” Vietnam Veteran Sardo Sanchez. “We want all New Mexicans to be able to see it.”

The plan was to unveil the wall in March, but just weeks ago those spearheading the idea thought the dream would fail.

Organizers were short about half the $20,000 needed to build it, until Daniel's Funeral Home stepped up and paid the rest.
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Donation saves memorial for slain vets

Ross Perot pledge of 6.1 million causes military rethink on ethics

Army rethinks how it teaches ethics to soldiers

By John Milburn - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Dec 28, 2009 7:44:45 EST

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — Army leaders who’ve been prompted to rethink tactics and war-fighting doctrines because of Iraq and Afghanistan also see a need to re-examine how they educate soldiers about ethics.

Some of the interest in ethics is tied to the wars: the black eye of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, concerns that stress from unconventional conflict leads to bad decisions, and, for at least one retired general, the sense that the military lost the public’s trust in Iraq. But some leaders also say the Army has worried for a while that it hasn’t been doing a good enough job of instilling strong ethics.

Officials at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and at Fort Leavenworth, home to the Army’s Command and General Staff College, are still in the early stages of developing the material they’ll blend into handbooks, papers, online presentations and videos they use to train soldiers. Officers involved in the effort say that eventually a soldier’s grounding in ethics — strong or weak — will become a factor in promotions.

The Army’s efforts to rethink its training on ethics received a boost this fall, when Texas billionaire and two-time presidential candidate Ross Perot pledged $6.1 million to a private foundation supporting programs at Fort Leavenworth’s command college. One result is a new chairmanship in ethics — the kind of post universities set up for academic areas they deem important.
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Army rethinks how it teaches ethics to soldiers

Texas couple designs tribute coin for veterans

Texas couple designs tribute coin for veterans

By Celinda Emison - Abilene (Texas) Reporter-News via AP
Posted : Monday Dec 28, 2009 12:07:32 EST

ABILENE, Texas — Larry and Sue Farr are on a mission to make sure all military men and women know they are appreciated for their sacrifices made in the service to their country.

The Farrs have designed and developed the “Not Forgotten” coin to distribute among veterans, service members, and friends and family who want to hand them out to their loved ones.

The coins are made of copper and have a flag and a cross on both sides, with the phrases “In God We Trust” and “You Are Not Forgotten,” on each face.

The idea came to Larry Farr back in January, during a meeting of his church group. Initially, he thought of a coin that airmen at Dyess Air Force Base could use on base to get a cup of coffee.

“That was not enough,” said Larry Farr, who is on the Military Affairs Committee of the Abilene Chamber of Commerce.
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Texas couple designs tribute coin for veterans

Fires claims lives in Mississippi and Massachusetts

Mysterious Fires in Massachusetts Town Kill 2
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (Dec. 28) -- Local and state authorities in Northampton, Mass., are investigating a string of suspicious fires that killed two people and left residents shaken, officials said Sunday.

In just more than an hour early Sunday, five structures -- including a single-family residence -- burned, in addition to "numerous cars," district attorney Betsy Scheibel told a news conference that included fire and police officials and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

Two people were found dead on the first floor of the residence, Scheibel said. Identities of the victims are being withheld pending autopsy results.
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Mysterious Fires in Massachusetts Town Kill 2


Apartment Blaze Kills 9; Kids Among the Dead
STARKVILLE, Miss. (Dec. 28) -- Nine people, including at least six children, died early Monday in an apartment fire, officials said.

The blaze was reported around 4 a.m., according to Oktibbeha County Coroner Michael Hunt. He and state Fire Marshal Mike Chaney confirmed the deaths.

Firefighters were still at the scene more than six hours later, and there was no word on how the blaze started.

"All I can tell you is we had a fire in one of the older apartment buildings," Starkville Fire Chief Rodger Mann said. "That's about all I can say. When a fatality is involved, things move a lot slower."
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Apartment Blaze Kills 9

At Fort Hood, Reaching Out to Soldiers at Risk

At Fort Hood, Reaching Out to Soldiers at Risk

By JAMES DAO
Published: December 23, 2009
FORT HOOD, Tex. — The day after a gunman killed 13 people here last month, Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, the post’s commander, fired off an e-mail message to an unusual audience: local advocates for disaffected soldiers, deserters and war resisters. “I am told you may be able to help me understand where some of the gaps are in our system,” he wrote.


Last week, those advocates put General Cone’s offer to a test. A specialist who had deserted last year wanted to turn himself in. Would the general help the soldier, who has post-traumatic stress disorder, get care?

The general said yes.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said James Branum, a lawyer representing the specialist, Eric Jasinski. “It is very unusual for the commanding general to get involved.”

For years, Fort Hood has been an emblem of an overstretched military, with long deployments and combat-related stress contributing to rising numbers of suicides, divorces, spousal abuse and crime, mental health experts say.

Now, after the Nov. 5 shootings, the post is trying to show that it has another side, one that can care for its frailest and most battle-weary soldiers.

For the last month, the Pentagon has dispatched scores of psychologists, therapists and chaplains to counsel soldiers and their families, and bolster the post’s chronically understaffed mental health network. It has overseen the creation of a new system of trauma counseling. And it has pledged to speed the hiring of dozens of permanent new mental health specialists.

But the stepped-up efforts, while welcomed even by critics of the Army’s record in dealing with combat-related stress, are also seen as a test of its resolve to break with the past. Making change stick remains a challenge not just for Fort Hood, but the entire Army, as it struggles to improve care for its rising tide of deployment-strained soldiers.
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At Fort Hood Reaching Out to Soldiers at Risk