Osama lived in mansion and told others to die

We waited almost ten years for this, "an American bullet in bin Laden's head" but as people line up to take credit, including Bush's cabinet members, it is stunning to discover that for 8 years of his presidency, it turns out Osama has been living in the mansion for years and it took Obama two years to do what Bush couldn't get done in 8. We all remember the news interview in 2002 when Bush said he didn't spend much time thinking about Osama. After all, the talk at that point changed to Iraq and Saddam.

Most of the young men and women enlisted because of September 11, 2001 but the exact number of the over 2 million deployed into Afghanistan and Iraq is not known. This is what they wanted and the rest of the country demanded until they just didn't care anymore. When was the last time Osama's name was even mentioned? As more and more Americans decided the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not worth the money anymore, the men and women serving in the military still risked their lives everyday. Now it seems as if every American and most of the world is celebrating an American bullet ending Osama's terror.

Precision mission ends with an American bullet in bin Laden's head
By CHRIS CARROLL
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 2, 2011

WASHINGTON — The plan was to slip in smoothly. Elite Navy SEALs would descend from helicopters and kill or capture the ghostlike figure who had overseen the murder of thousands and haunted the American imagination for a decade.

Instead, the raid began with a bang as a Black Hawk helicopter crash-landed in the courtyard of a fortified compound in Abbottabad, an affluent area outside Islamabad, Pakistan. Here, among retired military officers and near Pakistan’s leading military school, the world’s most wanted man had been hiding in plain sight while the search for him focused on Pakistan’s rough-and-tumble tribal region near Afghanistan.

Bedeviled by helicopter problems, the raid began with echoes of the foiled 1980 mission to free U.S. hostages in Iran, or the brutal Battle of Mogadishu — another Black Hawk down.

But it didn’t play out that way, as some two dozen elite members of fabled SEAL Team Six and CIA operators pulled it together. They continued on with their mission — perhaps the most consequential American military operation in decades — without missing a beat.

Bin Laden had been holed up within an extensive, roughly triangular compound surrounded by walls up to 18 feet high. Inside, it was divided by more walls and dominated by a three-story mansion.

Months of CIA intelligence work based on information from detainees had established first that a trusted emissary of the terrorist leader lived there.
Precision mission ends with an American bullet in bin Laden's head

Osama was a coward, hiding in a mansion, telling poor and frustrated fools that they could become martyrs by blowing themselves up, but in the end, he was not even willing to die and hid behind his wife.

As of today, according to iCasualties there have been 4,452 lives gone paying the price in Iraq and 1,566 in Afghanistan. Naturally we do not factor in all the wounded any more than we factor in all the deaths caused by combat PTSD and suicides because that would just be too much for our imagination and conscience to grasp fully. As we are celebrating the death of Osama, how long will it take to think of the price paid for this to happen? Will the American people now respond to surveys saying it was worth it? What does this end up meaning to the veterans of our wars we stopped paying attention to?

Army Vet: This Is Why I Signed Up (VIDEO)
— By Tim Murphy Mon May. 2, 2011


Ret. Sgt. Evan Cole enlisted the Army when he was a 17-year-old Michigan high school student in 2001. He got out of Walter Reed Naval Hospital three months ago. He has a six-inch scar on his right leg to go with injuries to his hand and his head from his tour in Ramadi. He made up his mind to join the army after the watched the Twin Towers fall in his geography class. Cole was one of thousands of revelers who gathered in front of the White House late last night and stayed well into the early hours of the morning to celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden.

"In the last few years, it seemed like nobody even cared, like what we did over there in Iraq; nobody even talks about it anymore. It is so amazing to see so many people out here wearing red, white, and blue," Cole said. "See, that's what we were over there for—it's these people!"
Army Vet: This Is Why I Signed Up

Will this Memorial Day be sacred to us or will it be just one more long weekend to kick off our summer? Will the media finally admit that when some wiser heads were saying that a full blown occupation was not necessary when this operation was pulled off with the bravery of SEALS and intelligence of CIA agents? Calm determination of President Obama ended this even while he was being attacked over "silly" accusations like his birth certificate. The media fed the frenzy but he was planning to finally being Osama's life to an end.

6 Boy Scouts, 2 troop leaders missing in Arkansas National Forest

UPDATE 9:38

Missing Boy Scout troop found in Arkansas national forest
May 3rd, 2011



A Boy Scout troop from Lafayette, Louisiana, which was missing after a weekend camping trip in an Arkansas national forest, was found safe on Tuesday, officials said.

The campsite of troop No. 162 in the Ouachita National Forest was spotted by a National Guard helicopter, said Jerry Elizandro, spokesman for the Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency.

The scouts were being transferred by helicopter to a command post, said Art Hawkins, scout executive for the Evangeline Area Council of Boy Scouts of America. All the boys are fine, he said. Officials hope to find out what happened from the scout master later, he said.

Hawkins said Monday officials were confident the troop was safe, saying the scout master with the troop was very experienced and serves as a backpacking trainer. The average age of the youths is 14, he said.

Arkansas State Police were prevented from conducting an aerial search on Monday because of the weather, Hawkins said. A lack of cell service in the area was also hampering search efforts, he said.

The area being searched was near the scene of a fatal flood last year. Twenty people died in flash floods during the summer.
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6 Boy Scouts, 2 troop leaders missing in Arkansas National Forest
By Rick Martin, CNN
May 2, 2011 10:08 p.m. EDT

Arkansas authorities are searching the Ouachita National Forest for a missing Boy Scout troop from Louisiana.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Search continues for Louisiana Boy Scout troop
Weather has prevented air search
Location has no mobile phone service

(CNN) -- A Boy Scout troop from Lafayette, Louisiana, is missing after camping this weekend in a national forest in Arkansas.

Arkansas emergency official Tommy Jackson said the search by the Montgomery County Sheriff's office for Troop No. 162 continues in the Ouachita National Forest.

"We're very confident the kids and adults are safe," scout executive Art Hawkins of the Evangeline Area Council of Lafayette said. "The Scout master with them is very experienced and serves as a backpacking trainer. The average age of the youth is 14 and they are the more experienced hikers of his organization."

Arkansas State Police have tried to conduct an aerial search, but due to the weather have not been able to, Hawkins said.

Arkansas authorities describe their search as being near the scene of 2010's fatal camp flood where 20 people died in flash floods during the summer.

"We're dealing with all kinds of floods in the state," Jackson said. There's no cell service in the area and it's hampering search efforts, he said.
read more here
6 Boy Scouts, 2 troop leaders missing

Senators hope to learn more about bin Laden op

Chuck Todd on NBC Nightly News didn't mention the helicopter having to be blown up by the SEALS but congress is looking into what happened to it.

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This is the report of the helicopter.

Senators hope to learn more about bin Laden op
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday May 2, 2011 16:06:58 EDT
The Senate Armed Services Committee wants more information about the special operations helicopter that was blown up Sunday by U.S. Navy SEALs after suffering some kind of failure during the raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden.

At one point Sunday night, during a briefing with reporters, White House officials said the helicopter had suffered a mechanical failure that led to a forced landing in the Pakistan compound; another chopper was sent to extract the U.S. forces. But, later in the same briefing, White House officials said mechanical failure may not have been to blame.

News photos of the remains of the helicopter appear to show a UH-60 Black Hawk.

The failure of a helicopter during a key part of the military mission was eerily similar to the mechanical failures and crash that resulted in disaster during Desert One, the 1980 incident when U.S. forces attempted to free U.S. hostages being held in Iran. The rescue mission was aborted when three of the five helicopters suffered mechanical problems or did not reach the rendezvous point because of bad weather and malfunctions.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the armed services committee chairman, said during a Monday conference call with reporters that the committee hopes to discover exactly what happened to the helicopter on Tuesday afternoon, when the Obama administration promised to provide a full briefing on details of the operation.

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Senators hope to learn more about bin Laden op

Report from Richard Engle

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Headline spin on soldiers with PTSD again

How did this report end up being another "blame the veteran" piece?

Soldiers with mental illness more often get PTSD

When you read further down you find this.

In the new study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, more than 22,000 soldiers completed a health questionnaire before they were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, and again after they returned.

Just over three percent had some mental illness, including PTSD, at the outset.

When you put the whole thing together, you get not much adding up to this headline.

Soldiers with mental illness more often get PTSD


NEW YORK | Mon May 2, 2011 5:18pm EDT
(Reuters Health) - Preexisting mental health problems could be setting soldiers up for posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, when they return from the battlefield, U.S. Navy researchers said Monday.

They found those with depression, panic disorder or another psychiatric illness were more than twice as likely to develop the condition as their mentally stable peers.

"More vulnerable members of the deployed population might be identified and benefit from interventions targeted to prevent or to ensure early identification and treatment of postdeployment PTSD," Dr. Donald Sandweiss of the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, California, and colleagues write.

Earlier studies have come to different conclusions, but their methods were less reliable than those used in the current one, the researchers add.

Between seven to eight percent of the general population eventually develops PTSD, according to the National Center for PTSD at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The psychological toll -- including flashbacks, "numbing" toward other people, and drug problems -- can be extremely hard to deal with and may destroy relationships or cause trouble on the job.
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Soldiers with mental illness more often get PTSD

Are they saying that 7 to 8 percent of the population are exposed to traumatic events causing PTSD or are there actually more since the going rate of PTSD is one out of three exposed to events that put their lives in danger. Do they address the fact that when you look up the symptoms of PTSD, you find depression, panic attacks along with a very, very long list of symptoms that could be misdiagnosed when taken all together along with the stressor of a traumatic event, it all turns out to be PTSD. They have been misdiagnosing PTSD as something else for a very long time but when you talk to experts they always look for what is behind what they are seeing.

They will ask about when the person started to show signs and then ask about events. They listen for key words from patients as well as families and then zero in on the term "suddenly changed" so they can discover if it is mental illness or PTSD. Much like going to a doctor with any condition cannot be diagnosed without knowing what you feel is wrong with you, they get this one wrong all the time. If you went to a doctor and said you had a headache but they never checked for a bullet hole in your head, aspirin isn't going to do you much good at all.

But this is the Reuters version of the piece in Science Daily.

Post-Deployment PTSD Symptoms More Common in Military Personnel With Prior Mental Health Disorders

At baseline, 739 participants (3.3 percent) had at least one psychiatric disorder, defined as PTSD, depression, panic syndrome or another anxiety syndrome. Of the overall group, 183 individuals (0.8 percent) sustained a physical injury during deployment. Follow-up questionnaires showed that 1,840 participants (8.1 percent of the 22,630 subjects in the study population) had PTSD symptoms after deployment.

Participants who showed signs of PTSD at baseline had nearly five times the odds of developing the disorder after deployment. Similarly, among those who experienced other mental health issues were at baseline, the odds of post-deployment PTSD symptoms was 2.5 times more likely. Further, the study found each three-unit increase in Injury Severity Score (as assigned by the JTTR or CTR EMED) was associated with a 16.1 percent greater odds of having post-deployment PTSD symptoms.

Pre-deployment? Were these men and women deployed prior to this study and how many times were they deployed before this? The Army said that redeployments increased the risk of PTSD by 50%. Experts also say that a lot of times PTSD does not cause problems in some until years after the event itself. So what is this study really all about? Is it about trying to say they have no responsibility to the veterans they discharged under "personality disorders" and they can start doing that again? After all, if they were already mentally ill then the military is not responsible for them if they end up with PTSD. In other words, is this one more attempt at blaming the troops for the price they pay serving and risking their lives?

Cole CO during 2000 attack says crew vindicated

Cole CO during 2000 attack says crew vindicated
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Monday May 2, 2011 13:25:13 EDT
A former commander of the destroyer Cole cheered the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed during a raid on a secret compound in Pakistan early Monday, but said the news was also a sobering reminder of those who lost their lives or were injured during the Oct. 12, 2000, bin Laden-directed attack in Aden, Yemen.

“I’m absolutely thrilled that we finally reached out and got bin Laden,” said retired Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, who commanded the ship at the time of the attack. “But as you would expect, that’s also tempered with the fact that there are still 17 families out there that are missing their loved ones, along with thousands of other Americans who’ve also paid a price at the hands of that guy.”
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Cole CO during 2000 attack says crew vindicated

Osama tried to hide behind his wife?

UPDATE 4:13

May 03, 2011
Obama aide: Bin Laden not armed when killed


By David Jackson, USA TODAY

Osama bin Laden was not armed when a U.S. Navy SEAL shot and killed him during the raid two days ago in Pakistan, a White House spokesman said today, contrary to previous accounts provided by Obama administration officials.

"He was not armed," spokesman Jay Carney said today while reading a revised narrative that corrects other errors from previous readouts of the operation that took the life of the world's most wanted terrorist.

The new account changes the initial claim, later withdrawn, that bin Laden had used a woman believed to be his wife as a "human shield" when confronted by U.S. forces during the raid that began at 4:15 p.m. Sunday, Washington time.

The updated version says "a woman -- bin Laden's wife -- rushed the U.S. assaulter and was shot in the leg but not killed."

"Bin Laden was then shot and killed," the narrative adds at that point. "He was not armed."

At a White House briefing yesterday, counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan said that bin Laden "engaged in a firefight with those that entered the area of the house he was in. And whether or not he got off any rounds, I quite frankly don't know."

Brennan also said bin Laden was "hiding behind women who were put in front of him as a shield."
read more here
Obama aide: Bin Laden not armed when killed

40 minutes to capture or kill: Timeline, history of Osama bin Laden raid
Sunday's dramatic events, with a continuous firefight that ended in Osama bin Laden's death in Pakistan, were preceded by years of intelligence gathering and extensive, painstaking planning.

By James Oliphant, Washington Bureau
4:01 p.m. EDT, May 2, 2011


Reporting from Washington— After landing by helicopter at the Pakistani compound housing Osama bin Laden on Sunday, the U.S. special operations team tasked with capturing or killing the Al Qaeda leader found itself in an almost continuous gun battle.

For the next 40 minutes, the team cleared the two buildings within the fortified compound in Abbottabad, north of Islamabad, trying to reach Bin Laden and his family, who lived on the second and third floors of the largest structure, senior Defense Department and intelligence officials said Monday.

"Throughout most of the 40 minutes, they were engaged in a firefight," said a senior Pentagon official, who characterized the operation as intense but deliberate.

Bin Laden "resisted" and was killed by U.S. gunfire in the larger building toward the end of the operation. He fired on the assault team, a U.S. official said, and may have tried to use his wife as a shield. The woman also was killed.

After the firefight, the special-operations force quickly gathered papers — valuable intelligence on Al Qaeda, officials said — and other materials in the two buildings and clambered back on helicopters, taking Bin Laden's corpse with them.
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40 minutes to capture or kill

Two Korean War vets receive Medal of Honor posthumously

Two Korean War vets receive Medal of Honor posthumously
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest declaration of military valor, to two Korean War veterans on Monday.

Family members of Army Private First Class Anthony Kaho'ohanohano and Private First Class Henry Svehla accepted the awards on the soldiers' behalf over 50 years after their deaths.

Kaho'ohanohano, a native Hawaiian, held off enemy soldiers with his firearm, grenades and eventually his hands on September 1, 1951, allowing his comrades to regroup and repulse the attack.

After his platoon appeared to be losing in a fight on June 12, 1952, Svehla, from New Jersey, charged enemy positions, firing and throwing grenades. Despite being wounded, he carried on. Finally, he threw himself on a grenade to save the lives of fellow soldiers.
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Two Korean War vets receive Medal of Honor posthumously

Deltona FL Master Sgt. Tara R. Brown among dead at Kabul Airport shooting

Deltona airman killed in gunfire near Kabul airport
Master Sgt. Tara R. Brown, 33, died in a hail of gunfire at Kabul International Airport earlier this week.

Compiled by Orlando Sentinel
11:17 p.m. EDT, April 29, 2011

A Deltona airman was among nine Americans killed this week in gunfire at a military compound near Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced Friday.

Master Sgt. Tara R. Brown, 33, and eight other Americans died when a veteran Afghani pilot opened fire about 10 a.m. Wednesday.

An argument with a foreign colleague at a meeting in the operations room of the Afghan air force building preceded the shooting, according to statements released by NATO and Afghan officials. The pilot targeted foreign instructors and advisers, they said.
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Deltona airman killed in gunfire near Kabul airport

Combat Stress as 'Moral Injury' Offends Marines

When will they ever learn? If it was a "moral injury" then why would survivors of other traumatic events suffer? Yes, moral issues do factor into PTSD but when you have so many believing in what they are doing, telling them it is a moral injury is way off base.

Combat Stress as 'Moral Injury' Offends Marines
April 29, 2011
Stars and Stripes|by Megan McCloskey
SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- The new buzzwords in the mental health community for types of combat stress are "moral injury" -- and some Marines don't really care for the label.

On the third day of the Navy and Marine Corps' annual conference on combat and operational stress control, moral injury was the guiding topic. One Marine commander roped into a panel discussion at the last minute bluntly took issue with the phrase: "As a Marine, I'm insulted."

Lt. Col. James "Hall" Bain, commander of 3rd Combat Engineer Battalion, said he thought the term implied that Marines were stressed as a result of immorality.
Combat Stress as 'Moral Injury' Offends Marines

Military PTSD is a whole different type of wound than regular people suffer from. The closest thing to military PTSD is the type that strikes law enforcement. Why? Because of the number of times they are exposed to traumatic events and the fact they are not just survivors, but part of the trauma itself. Some will and do question the moral justification of what they had to do but that is part of just being human. All humans with any kind of a conscience question themselves but not all humans develop PTSD. Trying to box in PTSD with a "moral injury" tells them they suffer because they did something wrong and that's the end of the story. I am not surprised they feel insulted. It is almost as if the speakers did a fraction of the homework they should have done on this before they addressed the Marines.

Plant City Marine killed in Afghanistan on daughter's first birthday

Plant City Marine wanted to be best dad he could be

By Dan Sullivan, Times Staff Writer

Freeman died in Afghanistan on Thursday on his daughter Kaitlyn Michelle’s first birthday.

Ronald "Dougie" Freeman wanted to be the best.

Those who knew him already knew him as the best student, the best worker, the best brother. But he needed to prove it to himself. To do that, he had to become a Marine.

"He could have had anything he wanted," said his father, Brian Freeman. "But he wanted to go into the Marines."

On Thursday, Lance Cpl. Freeman of Plant City was killed in Afghanistan. He was 26.

A Department of Defense statement said he died while conducting combat operations for Operation Enduring Freedom in Helmand Province.

A minesweeper, Lance Cpl. Freeman got off a truck to search an area when one exploded, killing him, according to his family.

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Plant City Marine wanted to be best dad he could be