Exposure to hexavalent chromium exposure weighs on veteran

6 years after Iraq, hexavalent chromium exposure weighs on veteran
By Julie Sullivan, The Oregonian
December 28, 2009, 7:25PM

ROCKAWAY -- The Naylor living room is all playroom, cleared to toddle, cuddle and roll. But when Dad's home, the children often head to the back bedroom to play quietly with Mom.

Six years after Guy Naylor returned from Iraq, he can't stand the clamor of his own family. The soft-spoken dialysis technician shouted at other drivers so often, his family moved to Rockaway to escape Portland traffic. The medic who ran every day has gained 80 pounds. Joint pain wakes him. He coughs so much, his patients constantly ask if he has a cold. He swallows nine different medications a day. Up from none.

"He doesn't seem like a 40-year-old man," says his wife, Toniann. "He seems 60."

Naylor is being treated for post-traumatic stress and exposure to hexavalent chromium, an industrial chemical and well-known carcinogen that soldiers unwittingly faced while guarding war contractors. He's one of 278 Oregon Army National Guard soldiers who were notified of possible exposure while serving at or near the Qarmat Ali water-treatment plant in 2003. Fleeing Iraqi troops loyal to Saddam Hussein had dumped the orange industrial chemical across the property.


6 years after Iraq, hexavalent chromium exposure weighs on veteran

Mother, Baby 'Die' in Labor but Are Revived

Mother, Baby 'Die' in Labor but Are Revived

DENVER (Dec. 29) - Mike Hermanstorfer was clutching his pregnant wife's hand when her life slipped away in a Colorado hospital on Christmas Eve, and then he cradled his newborn son's limp body seconds after a medical team delivered the baby by cesarean section.

Minutes later he saw his son come to life in his arms under the feverish attention of doctors, and soon he learned his wife had inexplicably come back to life.

"My legs went out from underneath me," Hermanstorfer said Tuesday. "I had everything in the world taken from me, and in an hour and a half I had everything given to me."
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Mother Baby Die in Labor but Are Revived

National Guardsmen pay to have Iraqi baby see

Guardsmen foot eye surgery bill for Iraqi child

The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Dec 30, 2009 9:49:40 EST

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A wrong turn directed West Virginia soldiers to helping an Iraqi baby see for the first time.

Army National Guardsman Jason Hickman was part of a convoy five months ago that accidentally ended up in the village where Noor Hassam Oudah was visiting her uncle.

Although the infant’s congenital cataracts could be corrected, her family in Baghdad couldn’t afford to have the surgery performed.

Hickman asked for donations from fellow soldiers and friends and family back home to West Virginia. After raising $5,000, Noor had surgery Nov. 15, three days before her first birthday.

Hickman said he doesn’t believe in coincidence or destiny. He believes God puts people in certain places at certain times and all one has to do is watch for the signs.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/ap_guard_iraq_surgery_123009/

Soldiers Driven to Desperation Deaths

Military Suicides: Soldiers Driven to Desperation Deaths
Dr. Phil Leveque Salem-News.com
They are the highest in history.

Is there really any difference as to how they died?

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - I am appalled beyond repugnance to even read my own title. It seems that the Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force all have the same problem but the Infantry really gets it in the rear echelon.

They won’t accept one into the service with ANY vestige of MENTAL DISORDER. Then they drive him crazy enough to kill himself, then they call it ADJUSTMENT DISORDER and a pre-service condition and it is all the suicide soldier or Marine's weakness.

I have posted many articles about Infantry craziness on Salem-News.com. One more will just further indicate my disgust.

For the past 4 years the Army has had at least 100 suicides per year, probably many more, with about ¼ in Iraq (less total troops). This is much higher than civilians of the same age group. Are you surprised?!? You shouldn’t be!!
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Soldiers Driven to Desperation Deaths

Father of two, Army veteran shot to death in Jackson murder-suicide

Father of two, Army veteran shot to death in Jackson murder-suicide
By Robert Wang
CantonRep.com staff writer
CANTON — Derrick Busto left two small children when he was shot to death Sunday morning in Jackson Township by the ex-husband of the woman he was dating.

His younger child, a son, is 2. His other child is an 8-year-old daughter, Harmony, who still doesn’t comprehend that her father is gone, said the girl’s mother, Kelly Henson, who’s also Busto’s ex-wife.

“I don’t think she understands right now. She hasn’t said much about it,” Henson, of Canton, said Tuesday. “She keeps asking if her daddy is OK.”

She said Busto was a good father who last summer helped coach their daughter’s softball team.
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Army veteran shot to death in Jackson murder suicide

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