USS Michael Murphy named for Medal of Honor recipient

Navy ship dedicated to fallen SEAL
From Susan Candiotti and Ross Levitt, CNN
May 8, 2011 1:48 p.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
USS Michael Murphy named for Medal of Honor recipient
Murphy, a Navy SEAL lieutenant, was killed in 2005 in Afghanistan
His namesake destroyer was christened by his mother at a shipyard in Maine

Bath, Maine (CNN) -- Under clear, blue skies, a ship dedicated to fallen Medal of Honor recipient and Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy was christened Saturday by his mother, Maureen, at Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine.

"I feel not only Michael's presence, but that ship embodies the spirits of Michael and his teammates," Murphy's father, Daniel, told CNN.

Following tradition, Murphy's mother cracked a bottle of champagne against the hull of the USS Michael Murphy.

"Happy Birthday, son!" Murphy's mom said on what would have been her son's 35th birthday. His life was cut short in the mountains of Afghanistan in 2005.

Dr. Josh Appel, an Air Force Reserve flight surgeon, helped retrieve Murphy's body after a firefight that claimed the lives of 18 other troops, including 2 SEALs from Murphy's team.
read more here
Navy ship dedicated to fallen SEAL

Family adamant about colonel's 2008 death: It was not suicide

Family adamant about colonel's 2008 death: It was not suicide
By HOWARD ALTMAN | The Tampa Tribune
Published: May 08, 2011

HUDSON --
At the kitchen table of their Heritage Pines home, filled with treasures collected over a lifetime of service to the country, John and Mary Lou Stahlman look through pictures of their youngest child, the highest-ranking Marine casualty in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Michael Stahlman as a Marine Corps fighter pilot. As a Judge Advocate General Corps lawyer who investigated civilian killings. As a Marine colonel going on the jogs he loved.

The pictures bring back memories, but the most vivid is the one that came from their daughter-in-law Kimberly Stahlman on July 31, 2008. The news was shocking: The Marines said her husband had been found in his bunk in Ramadi, Iraq, with a single gunshot wound to the left temple.

Michael Stahlman survived for several months but succumbed to infections Oct. 5, 2008. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

To the military, the case is open-and-shut. The Marines ruled his death a suicide, saying Stahlman shot himself with his Marine-issued Beretta 9 mm.

Stahlman's parents, though, don't believe the Marines' version of what happened half a world away.

"He was murdered," John Stahlman says steadfastly.

"I could scream," Mary Lou Stahlman says. "He was making plans to come home. He would never kill himself."
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Family adamant about colonel's 2008 death: It was not suicide

Vietnam Veterans Memorial will have 5 more names this Memorial Day

Vietnam Veterans Memorial adds 5 more names in DC
TAGS: Veterans

By: The Associated Press 05/08/11 2:17 AM
The Associated Press
The names of five U.S. soldiers are being added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

A ceremony will be held Sunday morning to honor Army Spec. Charles Sabatier of Galveston, Texas, whose name is being added. He was wounded in the Tet Offensive in 1968 when a bullet pierced his spinal column and left him paralyzed. He died in 2009 as a result of his condition.

The names of four other service members will be added over the next week.

They are: Army Spec. Charles Vest of Lynchburg, Ohio, who remained in a coma for years before he died; Army Sgt. Henry Aderholt of Birmingham, Ala.; Richard Daniels of Washougal, Wash., who served in the Navy; and Peter Holcomb of Grandy, Minn.



Read more at the Washington Examiner: Vietnam Veterans Memorial adds 5 more names in DC

Vietnam Vets thanked for service and sacrifice

Vietnam Vets thanked for service and sacrifice
Sunday, May 8, 2011
BY KAREN ROUSE
THE RECORD
STAFF WRITER
HOLMDEL — Joe Piacenti felt like Americans had gone on with life, forgetting him and all the other soldiers at war in Vietnam, when he returned to the United States in 1969.


LESLIE BARBARO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

"Only your family and friends cared about you," he said Saturday, following a ceremony at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial where he was awarded the New Jersey Distinguished Service Medal.

"We weren’t really appreciated," the River Vale resident recalled.

On Saturday, those feelings were behind him. Piacenti beamed as bright as the blue skies and warm sun that seemed to shine in approval of the dozens of war veterans and about 300 of their supporters participating in the Vietnam Veterans’ Remembrance Day ceremony.
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Vietnam Vets thanked for service and sacrifice

Because they cared so much

You may hear a Marine say they joined to kill some bad guys, and you can walk away believing all they wanted to do was kill without ever wondering what would make them want to risk their lives to do it. If you wonder, you'll find the answer soon enough. They wanted to "kill the bad guys" to save others.

The talk now is about Osama and how he was killed. If Osama had not ordered the deaths of as many people as possible, innocent people just showing up for work, the day he was killed would not have been an issue. Osama was not satisfied with what he had done. He wanted more innocent people to die. The SEALS stopped him from being able to kill more. The evidence found with Osama told a story of more attacks planned. Not on military targets but on civilians.

The troops were sent into Afghanistan because of him. They were sent into Iraq for? It didn't matter to the men and women sent because most of them joined because of September 11th. They were told it was because of our security. In other words, to save the lives of us.

The National Guards sent are another example of why they do what they do. When a natural disaster hits their community, they are the among the first people showing up to help.

Some people can't understand why so many of these men and women end up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. What they see, what they have to do, what hardships they have to endure, stays with them. These are not selfish people. They do what they do because they care. It is because they care so much they end up paying a price for the rest of their lives.

A soldier deployed for a year becomes a veteran for their lifetime. They come home profoundly changed even if they are not haunted by PTSD. This is very clear when you listen to older veterans, especially Vietnam Veterans.

At the Veterans Reunion in Melbourne FL, yesterday it was more clear listening to these veterans talk. They walked around looking at patches on vest and hats telling a story. They'd stop, reach out a hand and say "welcome home" as memories took them back 40 years. Where were you? When were you in? They knew what happened and when it happened just as they remembered what happened to them.

They came home, returned to the world the rest of us live in. Working jobs, having families and carry the same worries the rest of us have, but these men and women carried the burden the nation put on their shoulders everyday. Just because they were back home, it didn't mean they were back home all the way. Too many came home so changed by what they had to do they find a piece of themselves is still back there. It comes back to them in their dreams and flashbacks, in the hearing of a name or reading it on the Wall.

How you see them depends on what you know of them. If you honor what they did for us, then make sure they have what they need because veterans carry the burden for the rest of us all their lives. Some carry it deeper because they cared so much.

Father Of Miramar Marine Found Dead Talks To 10News

Father Of Miramar Marine Found Dead Talks To 10News

Cpl. Alan R. Bays Jr. Pronounced Dead En Route To Hospital

SAN DIEGO -- The father of a Miramar-based Marine who was found unconscious in his barracks spoke to 10News on Friday.

Cpl. Alan R. Bays Jr. of Cincinnati was found unconscious in his barracks on April 28, according to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar's public affairs office. Bays was pronounced dead en route to the hospital.

Bays was recovering from a head injury at Miramar after he was critically injured in Yuma, Ariz.

Bays' father, Alan Bays Sr., believes his son was training in Arizona to prepare for his second deployment to Afghanistan.

"They told me basically that my son had died as a result of injuries while training for redeployment to Afghanistan," said Bays Sr.

Bays was a flight equipment technician with the Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 462, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in October 2007.

After Bays was injured on April 16, he first went to Yuma Regional Medical Center. Then, he was airlifted to Phoenix Memorial Hospital where he stayed for four days. On April 20, Bays was driven back to Miramar where he stayed until April 28, the day he died.

"I don't see how you could discharge somebody from the hospital after four days… and then eight days later he dies," said Bays Sr.
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Father Of Miramar Marine Found Dead Talks To 10News

Missing sailor found and is getting help

Found Navy Sailor Was "Disoriented and Confused"
Sunday, May 8, 2011


Source: Missing Sailor Found "Confused" | NBC San Diego

By Artie Ojeda

A Navy sailor missing since last Tuesday had been living underneath a bridge for the past four days before he was found Saturday afternoon "disoriented and confused" at a friend's house in La Mesa.

Petty Officer Second Class Nicholas Hamilton, 31, had been missing since he failed to check in at Naval Base San Diego. His wife said he suffered from depression and PTSD and had tried to kill himself while aboard USS Ronald Reagan.
Missing Sailor Found

Missing Sailor Found
San Diego 6

UPDATE - A San Diego sailor suffering from post traumatic stress disorder who had been missing for five days was located on Saturday.

Amanda Hamilton told San Diego 6 News her husband turned himself into police and is now receiving treatment at Balboa Naval Hospital.

Missing sailor found

Navy wife begs for return

Veteran of Beirut bombing remembered after drowning death

Drowning victim remembered as a good man, former Marine by friends

By Don Lehman--dlehman@poststar.com

GLENS FALLS -- The Glens Falls man who drowned in a stream near Hovey Pond Park last weekend was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in Beirut in the 1980s, with friends saying he survived the 1983 barracks bombing there that killed hundreds.

Jeffrey Miswell was a disabled veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from his time overseas, according to his roommate, Randy Mlenar. Miswell was honorably discharged, he said.

Mlenar and a former neighbor of Miswell's said he was in the Marine Corps barracks that was bombed in October 1983, killing 241 U.S. servicemen and women. A 1983 Post-Star article confirmed he was in Beirut as a U.S. Marine at the time.

Miswell, 47, died Saturday night after he fell into a stream that drains Hovey Pond while fishing. He fell several feet off a concrete wall, and police don't know what caused him to fall.

Mlenar, a former Marine with whom Miswell lived in an apartment on Bay Street, fought back tears as he talked about his longtime friend.
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Drowning victim remembered as a good man, former Marine by friends

Terminally ill Vietnam Vet shot by police in Seattle

Armed man shot by Kent cops was ill and wanted to be killed, family says
The family of a Kent man thinks he intended to be killed when he armed himself and confronted police Wednesday near the Kent Transit Center.
By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter

The armed man fatally shot Wednesday by Kent police was a terminally ill Vietnam veteran who had been deeply depressed, according to his adult daughters.

The three women and their mother, who had been married to the man for more than 20 years before they divorced a few years ago, cried and held each other soon after arriving near the Kent Transit Center, where the shooting occurred.

"I believe he came down here with the intent to be killed by police. He wouldn't hurt anybody," said the man's youngest daughter, declining to give her name or the name of her father.

The man, whose name has not been released by authorities, had been depressed and frustrated with his declining health, medical care and the amount of medication he was required to take, said his daughters. They said he was terminally ill and suffered from diabetes, hepatitis C and cirrhosis of the liver.

"He's the type that would give you the shirt off his back. He wouldn't threaten anybody," said his eldest daughter. "He's always just been so strong. I don't understand how this could be the end of it."

At 9:10 a.m., Kent police received a 911 call from a Far West cabdriver who was concerned about his passenger, said Cathy Schrock, spokeswoman for the Federal Way Police Department, which is investigating the shooting. The cabbie, who pulled over at the transit center and was able to get out of the cab, told the 911 operator his passenger held a rifle or shotgun across his knees, she said.
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Armed man shot by Kent cops was ill

Dryhootch: Using Coffee and Conversation to Prevent Veteran Suicides

Dryhootch: Using Coffee and Conversation to Prevent Veteran Suicides
Non-profit Helps Veterans and Families "Survive the Peace"
Studies show 18 vets commit suicide in America each day, and more Wisconsin National Guard members are dying from suicide than in battle. A Milwaukee non-profit is working to prevent those deaths, through coffee and conversation.
Reporter: John Stofflet

Posted May 5, 2011--10:00 p.m.

Heather Morales' story is all too common. Mental combat wounds sustained in the Iraq War led her ex-husband to kill himself.

During an interview in her La Crosse home, Morales said, "I never in a million years thought he'd take his own life. The toughest part is him not being here for our daughter Katherine".

Heather's is a story Bob Curry has heard far too often. Curry, a Vietnam veteran, who has post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) says, "They don't train you to come back to civilian life. We need to take care of them when they get home."

Curry is co-founder of Dryhootch--a Milwaukee non-profit coffeehouse that serves much more than coffee. "The mission is, we say, to help the veteran and their family who survived the war to survive the peace. When you're in the military, your brother is the person next to you, or your sister, and so we want to create that bond here and help the veteran, who gets back and their family members, by being their
battle buddy here."

Veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan facing addiction or mental health issues can talk to other vets in counseling sessions, or they can just talk informally over coffee.

Iraq War veteran Manuel "Manny" Mora also has PTSD, and has found it therapeutic to talk to fellow vets at Dryhootch and, "have people to connect to, and let me know that I'm not the only one out there. There are other people in the same situation as I was."

Mora says he saw comrades severely wounded next to him in Iraq, and was under constant pressure there. "Just that constant paranoia of not knowing if you're going to get killed one day....kind of that worst feeling to go out of the gate and not know if you're going to come back or not. I imploded from the inside, and once that happened, I pretty much exploded on everything else outside, which left me homeless, pretty much sleeping in my car."

Curry says, "When I first met Manny a year and a half ago, Manny didn't talk." Thanks to Dryhootch, Manny's not only talking now...he's leading veterans counseling sessions there. Mora says, "My way of paying back is just helping other veterans in any way I can."
read more here
Using Coffee and Conversation to Prevent Veteran Suicides

Soldier found dead at home on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson

Soldier found dead at home on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska — Military officials in Alaska say a soldier has been found dead at Join Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage.

Officials say the soldier's name will not be released until the family notification process is complete.

According to officials, the soldier was found dead in his family quarters at the base early Friday.
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Soldier found dead at home on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson

Hundreds show up to honor fallen soldier against Westboro groups hatred

Hundreds Pay Respects to Soldier, Ward Off Protesters

The whole town of Jamestown, Pa., has 600 to 700 residents.

But Friday, there were several times that many people in the small community for the funeral services of Army Capt. Joshua McClimans, 30, who died last month in Afghanistan.

They took their places along Liberty Street, waiting to see if a threatened protest against McClimans by members of the controversial Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church would ever materialize.

"We will not stand back quietly while someone tries to disrupt the memory of a man who lived and breathed and died for our rights and our freedom," said Tammy Hodge, of Jamestown.

McClimans was killed April 22 as he was on his way to work at Forward Operating Base Salerno, in Khost province near Kabul. He was a member of the 848th Forward Surgical Team based in Twinsburg, Ohio. He would have turned 31 next week and had a young son, Max.

The Westboro Church has become known for sending members to military funerals, carrying obscene signs and shouting that the deaths of servicemen and women are God's way of punishing us for accepting homosexuality. After learning the church had listed McClimans' services on its list of demonstration sites, Hodge went online herself using Facebook to encourage others to support the Captain's family and friends. The effort drew hundreds from surrounding communities and even other states.
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Hundreds Pay Respects to Soldier, Ward Off Protesters

A mother’s love fans son’s will to survive

A mother’s love fans son’s will to survive

By ERIC ADLER

The Kansas City Star

On the fifth floor of the University of Kansas Hospital, in a corner room in the burn unit, a mother leans close to her son’s right ear.

He lies on the bed, eyes closed. Burns cover 90 percent of his body. Tubes snake from veins and his throat into humming machines.

“Josh?” Lisa Ott Battagliola whispers.

Whether her boy, Josh Langton, 27, can hear her, she doesn’t know. Even if he can, the memory of her presence may be lost in the fog of pain medication.

It doesn’t matter.

“Josh?” she says again.

Because if there’s one simple Mother’s Day lesson that Battagliola — a 4-foot-11-inch mom given to form-fitting jeans and high heels, born 50 years ago to a tough Las Vegas construction family — has learned through years of family hardships, through ups and down with her eldest son, it’s this:

“At the end of the day, tell your child, no matter how old they are, that you love them. Because no matter how old they are, they’re your child. Make sure they know you love them. One day you may get that 4 o’clock in the morning phone call.”

Josh has a wife, Jamie, and a 3-year-old daughter, Lilly, to live for. He was a soldier who survived Iraq and the PTSD nightmares that later haunted him.

Read more: A mother’s love fans son’s will to survive

US Military Suicidal Thoughts Up 7,000%

Why does it ever have to get so bad suicide seems to be better than living?

Suicidal Thoughts Up 7,000% As Reason For U.S. Military Hospitalizations Over Past Five Years
Posted by MARK THOMPSON Friday, May 6, 2011

This surprising chart is contained in a new Pentagon report. "Annual numbers of hospitalizations with primary (first-listed) diagnoses of suicidal ideation at discharge have steadily and sharply increased (from 5 in 2006 to 355 in 2010)," the Pentagon notes. That's a 7,000% increase in patients who reported thinking of killing themselves.



Read more: Suicidal Thoughts up 7,000 percent

Because they don't know how to heal? Or because no one ever told them what they needed to understand?
This is where the healing begins

Benjamin Campione’s decades-long struggle ends with shooting by police

Man details brother's struggle with mental illness before Thursday's fatal shooting by police
Published: Friday, May 06, 2011, 8:42 PM
By Charles McChesney / The Post-Standard

Syracuse, NY -- Victor Campione said he’d been to police three times in the past year, alerting them that his younger brother wasn’t taking his medication and was slipping deeper into paranoid schizophrenia.

On Thursday, two sheriff’s deputies and one Syracuse police officer ended Benjamin Campione’s decades-long struggle with mental illness by shooting him dead when he pointed a pellet gun at them in the parking lot of the Regional Transportation Center.

“This wasn’t suicide by cop,” said Campione, of Jordan, it was a mentally ill person reacting to what he thought was a threat.

Campione said his brother, who he calls “Benny,” was first diagnosed while serving in the Army in the late 1970s. He was discharged from the service after a year and a half of peacetime service as a medic. After that he came home and lived with or near family.
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Benjamin Campione

A warrior’s toughest battle: getting some help for the veterans

A warrior’s toughest battle: getting some help for the veterans
A military man and support expert outlines problems in a meeting with area care providers.
MATT HUGHES mhughes@timesleader.com

NANTICOKE – When U.S. Army Col. David W. Sutherland enters a building, part of him can’t help but think how he and a team of armed soldiers might take it over.


Standing telephone poles and working street lights sometimes leave him bewildered.

Sutherland, a veteran of both Iraq wars, has been shot at, bombed and not long ago witnessed a suicide bomber kill 20 people before his eyes, less than 10 feet away. Normal life isn’t quite normal for him any more.

At Luzerne County Community College on Friday, Sutherland commanded the attention of more than 80 representatives of organizations and agencies in Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming counties about how they can better aid returning military and veterans’ transition to civilian life.

The symposium was part of a new collaborative initiative called the Tri-Vets Community Task Force aimed at doing just that.

Sutherland is now the special assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with the principal focus on Warrior and Family Support. He has served in the military for 28 years and in 2008 and 2009 was regional division chief in the J5 Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate, making him responsible for strategic planning and advising the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on issues relating to the Middle East.
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A warrior’s toughest battle: getting some help for the veterans

Father of captured Idaho National Guard Private asks for son's freedom

Father of captured U.S. soldier asks for son's freedom
By Laura Zuckerman
SALMON, Idaho | Sat May 7, 2011 12:00am EDT
(Reuters) - The father of a U.S. soldier who was captured in Afghanistan two years ago on Friday posted an online appeal asking the government of Pakistan and its armed forces to help free his son.

"Our family is counting on your professional integrity and honor to secure the safe return of our son and we thank you," Robert Bergdahl says about his son, Idaho National Guard Private Bowe Bergdahl, in a video posted on YouTube.

Bowe Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, was a member of the 1st Battalion of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment in Afghanistan when he went missing June 30, 2009, and was declared captured by the Taliban three days later by the U.S. military. The Army specialist was 23 at the time.

The branch of the Taliban suspected to be holding Bowe Bergdahl operates on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and may be based in tribal lands in Pakistan, according to 2009 statements by the U.S. Department of Defense.
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Father of captured U.S. soldier asks for son's freedom

Vietnam veteran finally faces the wall at Melbourne Reunion

Vietnam veteran finally faces the wall
Written by
R. NORMAN MOODY
FLORIDA TODAY
MELBOURNE — George Taylor stretched his left hand out, his fingers touching the name of a fellow soldier killed in the Vietnam War more than 40 years ago and engraved on the Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall.

It was the first time Taylor could emotionally bring himself to face the wall at the Florida Vietnam and All Veterans Reunion at Wickham Park. The wall, which will be on display through Sunday, bears the names of more than 58,000 Americans who died in the war.

Taylor, who turned 61 on Friday, took off his ever-present cowboy hat, bowed his head with his forehead touching the wall, and he paused for a moment of silence as he touched the name of Rafael Colon-Santos.

Turning away from the wall, Taylor faced fellow veterans and supporters who gathered behind him. Some held a banner that said "Happy Birthday, Cowboy George." They shook his hand and hugged him.

"I had to try to lay 41 years of nightmares to rest," Taylor said, lips quivering as he choked back tears.

Taylor, founder and president of the National Veterans Homeless Support, which helps local homeless veterans, some from the Vietnam War, with supplies and helps to get them out of homelessness.
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Vietnam veteran finally faces the wall

PTSD veteran told to leave Hooters because of his service dog!

Veteran says restaurant refused to serve him with his service animal
Posted at: 05/06/2011 10:52 PM
By: Eddie Garcia, KOB Eyewitness News 4


Justin Jordan says a Hooters refused to serve him and tried to kick him out with his licensed service dog Dallas.

A Rio Rancho man says an Albuquerque Hooters violated his rights after trying to kick him and his dog out.

He is a war veteran and is still actively serving; his dog is a licensed service animal and is protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Air Force Master Sergeant Justin Jordan has served his country all over the world for 18 years but post traumatic stress disorder began creeping up on him making every aspect of his life seem like torture.

That was until he met a specially trained English bulldog named Dallas.

"So many of our veterans are stuck in their homes, not being able to go out in public. She gives me the ability to go out in public and participate in things I haven't done in a while - go to the park with my kids," said Jordan.

Last week, Jordan wanted to see a syndicated radio host who was in town and meeting fans at the Hooters on Alameda and Coors.

All was going well until management told Jordan to leave because of his dog, Dallas.
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Veteran says restaurant refused to serve him

Wounded vet makes progress in recovery

Wounded vet makes progress in recovery

By Anna Krejci, Dells Events | Posted: Friday, May 6, 2011

A little over a year ago, Army Spc. Michael Gawel, serving in Afghanistan, received injuries to his spine from an improvised explosive device that tore apart his vehicle.

In that span of time he recuperated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. where he was wheelchair bound most of the time, to walking with a cane at his Wisconsin Dells home.

As for what's happening in Afghanistan now, Gawel said he follows the news. Sunday night President Barack Obama announced that Navy SEALs had killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Bin Laden is blamed for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"It was a good job to the soldiers for doing what we were over there for. I'm not going to say I'm glad about anybody getting killed. I guess it brings us one step closer to the win on the war on terrorism in my mind," he said.

Now he is on his feet and walking without a cane while he performs office work for the Army National Guard in Reedsburg.
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Wounded vet makes progress in recovery

Army, charity save ailing Afghan boy

Army, charity save ailing Afghan boy
Child recovers from bladder surgery
6:57 AM, May. 7, 2011
Written by
Matt Manochio | Staff Writer

Livingston, May 6, 2011---US Army Major Glenn Battschinger of Mays Landing, NJ meets with six-year-old Muslam Hagigshah , a boy from Afghanistan that Battschinger met while on combat patrol and helped to arrange for medical help for the child who was born with his bladder outside his body.
BOB KARP/STAFF PHOTO / Staff Photo/staff photo

LIVINGSTON — Muslam Hagigshah didn’t stand much of a chance.

Born in poverty in Afghanistan with his bladder literally hanging over his groin outside of his body, he was unable to properly function, and could only walk bow-legged.

Then one day his mother brought the 6-year-old boy to an Army base in Jalalabad City, where she met Army Maj. Glenn Battschinger of Mays Landing.

Fast-forward one year to the John and Jacqueline McMullen Children’s Center at St. Barnabas Medical Center, where the Army major, the little boy, and his Egyptian-born pediatric urologist met Friday to celebrate the child’s recovery.

Many things had to happen in the 12 months that elapsed from when Muslam met Battschinger, whose mission in Afghanistan was government mentorship, acting as an outreach to the locals.
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Army, charity save ailing Afghan boy

After severe war injuries, a new battlefield

U.S. Marine Juan Dominguez, 27, takes his first step on his new "stubbies" with the help of prosthetics specialists Kevin Kohler, left, and Peter Harsch at Naval Medical Center San Diego.
(Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times / May 7, 2011)

After severe war injuries, a new battlefield
Troops with severe war injuries such as multiple amputations face a long and difficult rehabilitation. Naval Medical Center San Diego is where some learn a new way of life.
By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times
May 7, 2011

Reporting from San Diego—
Marine Lance Cpl. Juan Dominguez has come a long way since October, when a roadside bomb in Afghanistan ripped off his legs above the knees and shredded his right arm above the elbow.

A Navy corpsman, part of the same patrol, kept Dominguez from bleeding to death and wisely refused his pleas for morphine, lest he go into shock. Then there was the Navy doctor at nearby Forward Operating Camp Dwyer who "wouldn't let me die" and the intensive care he received at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

After that, Dominguez spent five months at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., and at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he underwent 23 surgeries. Today, the 26-year-old from Deming, N.M., is an outpatient at Naval Medical Center San Diego.

"This is home now," he said of the hospital on a hill beside Balboa Park.

Dominguez is among a growing number of Marines and soldiers who have suffered catastrophic wounds that will require years of care in military hospitals. The Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs are scrambling to put together a continuum of long-term care for Dominguez and other severely wounded personnel.
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After severe war injuries, a new battlefield

If there is one thing our disabled veterans have to teach us, not giving up should be at the top of the list.

After the Vietnam War many amputees returned home. Suffering the loss of limbs, there was a time when each of them had to wonder what their future would look like. Then came a time when they decided they were in charge of what their future would be.

In the Orlando Chapter of the Disabled American Veterans there are two living examples of not giving up. As a matter of fact, they went on to become outstanding.

Meet a Hero!

Jim Sursely
Jim recalls fire and noise erupting at his feet. But he doesn’t remember being thrown into the air by the explosion of a Viet Cong land mine. In fact, he didn’t learn the full extent of his sacrifice for America until he landed in an Army hospital in Colorado.

The explosion tore away both of Jim Sursely’s legs and his left arm. It could have been worse. If Jim’s clothing had not caught fire, cauterizing his gaping wounds, the young Army Staff Sergeant might have died. That’s why he says, “It’s an absolute miracle that I’m still around.”

Jim survived some of the most severe battle wounds ever, and the demons of fear, depression and despair came knocking on his door early on. But he remembers the tough love he got from other disabled veterans. As he built a successful real estate career, he always made time to give other disabled veterans the same kind of help that once meant so much to him.

That involvement led to Jim’s election to a one-year term as National Commander of the Disabled American Veterans. He continues to play an active role in the DAV nationally, in the state of Florida, and in his local DAV Chapter.

Jim with Dennis Joyner

Dennis Joyner
Dennis A. Joyner, Director and Secretary

Mr. Joyner served in the U.S. Army, 9th Infantry Division, in Vietnam. While on patrol in June 1969 in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, he became a triple amputee due to a land mine explosion. For the injuries sustained in battle, he received the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

Mr. Joyner served as National Commander of the 1.3 million-member-plus Disabled American Veterans (DAV) from 1983-84. During his term as National Commander, President Reagan named him the nation's Handicapped American of the Year, and he was honored as DAV's National Outstanding Disabled Veteran of the Year in 1977.

Mr. Joyner’s DAV leadership includes all elected offices in DAV Chapter 36 in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania; service as an officer in the DAV’s Department of Pennsylvania; and two years as DAV Department of California Adjutant. He served as President of the DAV Vietnam Veterans National Memorial Corporation from 1986 to 1998, when the corporation made a gift of the Memorial to the David Westphall Veterans Foundation. Currently he serves as Secretary-Treasurer of the DAV National Service Foundation Board of Directors, and in various leadership positions at the Department and Chapter level in Florida, where he now lives.

Mr. Joyner earned a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting at Robert Morris College in Pittsburgh in 1975 and an Associate of Arts Degree from the Community College of Allegheny in 1974. His professional experi¬ence includes four years as Westmoreland County Juvenile Service Center Accountant and as Fiscal Manager for the Westmoreland County Courts, Greensburg, Pennsylvania. He was appointed Westmoreland County Court Administrator in 1979, responsible for administration of the eight-judge court system and all court-related offices. While living in Pennsylvania, he was appointed by then-Governor Richard L. Thornburgh to serve on that state's Vietnam Herbicide Commission. He was a budget analyst and manager for the Seminole County, Florida Office of Management and Budget from 1989 to 1998 when he was appointed Assistant Supervisor of Elections. Governor Jeb Bush appointed Mr. Joyner Supervisor of Elections for Seminole County, in January 2004. He retired in January 2005.

Mr. Joyner was appointed to the Disabled Veterans LIFE Memorial Foundation Board of Directors in June of 2008.

Jim Sursley with Gary Sinise

When the newly wounded come home, they have a lot of changes and challenges in their lives. Some of them are lucky to have a spouse like Jean Sursely and Donna Joyner supporting them but some have no one. We need to face the fact that not all families are strong or have an unbreakable bond. For them, it takes the rest of us getting involved in their tomorrows.

101st Airborne makes history again

Obama meets bin Laden raiders, promises victory over al Qaeda
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 6, 2011 5:39 p.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Obama promises victory over al Qaeda while addressing troops at Fort Campbell
Obama and Biden met members of the team that raided bin Laden's compound
Obama awards the Presidential Unit Citation to units involved in the mission
Pressure is growing for a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan

Fort Campbell, Kentucky (CNN) -- President Barack Obama met Friday afternoon with members of the military team responsible for conducting the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, and promised a war-weary nation victory over al Qaeda.

"We are ultimately going to defeat al Qaeda," the president told more than 2,300 troops who recently returned from Afghanistan. "We have cut off their head."

"Our strategy is working and there is no greater evidence of that than justice finally being delivered to Osama bin Laden," he declared. "We're still the America that does the hard things, that does the great things."

The president made his remarks at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, home to the Army's 101st Airborne Division and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the group that operated the helicopters used in the raid.

While at Fort Campbell, the president, along with Vice President Joe Biden, privately met with members of Navy SEAL Team 6, the unit that conducted the raid.
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Obama meets bin Laden raiders, promises victory over al Qaeda

Osama's death has healing power

Sgt. Andrew Soto pu ton his uniform and went to 1st Lt. Omar Vazquez's funeral. He reflected on the "brother" now gone and the others before him, but he also noticed how this funeral was a little bit different.

Soto said this funeral was different because Vasquez died while the military is preparing to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. But he said the knowledge that bin Laden is no longer a threat was helping him heal.

We can talk about how some people want to take over the conversation about Osama by trying to take away from the fact President Obama lined up all resources to find Osama and remove him from this earth, disregard the actions of the SEALS and the CIA but the minority in this country are irrelevant. Give these folks time and they'll be calling into talk shows saying they saw Osama with Santa trying to get off his naughty list. What Obama did was healing to the people directly touched by what evil did to them and their families.

Families mourn troops amid swirl of emotions
By Josh Lederman - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday May 5, 2011 18:27:01 EDT
TRENTON, N.J. — As mourners filed out of the church, two by two, the organist struck up an unusual tune for a funeral: “America the Beautiful.” Outside, military pallbearers in ceremonial dress carried the flag-draped casket of 1st Lt. Omar Vazquez to the waiting hearse, while a dozen retired servicemen saluted, flags in hand.

About 60 miles away, President Obama was laying a wreath at ground zero — another dramatic moment in a week of celebration and somber reflection that began with news of the death of Osama bin Laden.

Families and friends of U.S. troops recently killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan face a swirl of emotions as they bury their dead while the nation marks the killing of the terrorist mastermind of Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“I was angry at first, because he didn’t get to see what he was actually fighting for,” said Vazquez’s cousin Marilyn Rodriguez.

Vazquez was killed by an improvised explosive device on April 22 in Iraq — nine days before Navy SEALs stormed a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Family members said the 25-year-old officer from Trenton had known since he was a little boy that he wanted to serve in the Army and defend his country from people like bin Laden.

“He would be proud, because they were out to make peace and get the people who hurt other people, to make sure it didn’t happen to other families,” Rodriguez said.

Sitting in the back pews of the Catholic church, under a golden inscription reading “The Lord is Here — He is Calling You,” a soldier who served with Vasquez reflected on the many funerals he’s attended for friends killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It’s the only time I wear this uniform,” said Sgt. Andrew Soto, who served with Vasquez for about three years when Vasquez was a cadet.

Soto said this funeral was different because Vasquez died while the military is preparing to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. But he said the knowledge that bin Laden is no longer a threat was helping him heal.
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Families mourn troops amid swirl of emotions

Someday when history is being reviewed by students trying to understand what happened after 9-11, they will read about the actions of high school kids joining the armed forces. They will read about how many lives were lost and how many wounded along with what price tag the end of these two wars came with. They will read about heroes. What they will also read about is that while Obama had the plans in place to rid this earth of a monster like Osama, he had to make an announcement about the fact he was born is Hawaii and show his birth certificate because some people were given to much notoriety. That while the media ignored all the troops were doing in Afghanistan and Iraq just as much as they were ignoring what they were going thru after combat, they followed people like Donald Trump and Sarah Palin with cameras making sure their voices were heard.

While some wanted to know what fools were thinking, Obama was doing, but the media didn't care. Let them focus on what divides us so they get ratings but the people paying the price with their lives for our tomorrows know what is healing and good.

Fort Carson soldier deployed to Afghanistan told of child's death at home

Mother hysterical after baby's scalding death, witnesses say

May 05, 2011 1:58 PM
LANCE BENZEL
THE GAZETTE
A Colorado Springs woman accused of first-degree murder in the drowning of her infant son in March would get so angry at her husband that she “didn’t want to touch” the boy, a detective testified Thursday.

Estella Toleafoa, 23, is accused of leaving 9-month-old Erich Tyler Jr. unattended in a bathtub on March 8 while she went across the street and bought chicken wings and cigarettes.

When Toleafoa returned, authorities say, the boy was lifeless – the victim of drowning and scalding of 80 percent of his body.

The murder charge alleges that Toleafoa “knowingly” caused her child’s death by leaving him unsupervised in the tub.

During a preliminary hearing that began Thursday, Colorado Springs police detective Fred Walker testified that a friend of Toleafoa said the woman complained bitterly about her husband, a Fort Carson soldier who was serving in Afghanistan at the time of their son’s death.

Toleafoa suspected Erich Tyler Sr. was having an affair, and told her friend the faltering marriage affected her feelings toward their son, Walker testified.



Read more: Mother hysterical after baby's scalding death

Police seek suicidal, AWOL Marine from Camp Lejeune

Thursday, May 5, 2011 - 10:03pm
Police seek suicidal, AWOL Marine
By Frank Gerace

Alexander Doron
County Police are looking for a Newark man they say has threatened to kill himself.

Police say 21-year-old Alexander Doron is AWOL from the Marine base at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, could be armed, and could be staying in the Newark area.
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Police seek suicidal, AWOL Marine

The Colbert Report celebration that took almost ten years

Bin Laden jokes

The Colbert Report
Tags: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Two High School Students Holding Benefit for PTSD

Helping Our Troops With Their Own Fight at Home
Written by Matthew A. Piacentini
Friday, 06 May 2011 00:00

Two Students Holding Benefit for PTSD
Brave American military personnel willingly put themselves in danger in service to their country every day. The effects of this kind of activity causes some veterans to experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

According to information put out by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, “Most people have some stress-related reactions after a traumatic event… In moments of danger, our bodies prepare to fight our enemy, flee the situation, or freeze in the hope that the danger will move past us. But those feelings of alertness may stay even after the danger has passed.” This can lead to anxiety, depression, anger and more.

To help in awareness and prevention of PTSD, two seniors at North Shore High School are holding a benefit event this month.

Dillon Seudat and Gregory Knox will hold “Shots 4 Soldiers,” a benefit basketball tournament with proceeds going to the National Veterans Association, specifically towards veterans with PTSD.

This is a senior project for the two students, part of the Generation Next curriculum in which seniors do a service project.
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Helping Our Troops With Their Own Fight at Home

SSG Seyward McKinney Returns to Warrior Games

SSG Seyward McKinney Returns to Warrior Games

By Donna Butler, WTC Stratcom

In March 2009, AW2 Veteran SSG Seyward McKinney’s life changed. After returning from Iraq, McKinney was diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in her brain. McKinney was treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and underwent numerous surgeries and nine days after the last, one of the vessels in her brain leaked, which caused her to have a stroke. Paralyzed on the right side of her body, McKinney’s injury caused her to lose her right-sided peripheral vision. Although her injuries are not combat-related, she is a living testament that non-combat related injuries can challenge Soldiers just as much as combat-related injuries.

McKinney was stationed at the Walter Reed Warrior Transition Unit (WTU) and worked diligently to learn how to overcome her injuries, eventually empowering herself to reach another milestone in her life—competing in the 2010 Warrior Games. She competed in the women’s sitting shot-put, in addition to 10K recumbent cycling, sitting volleyball, and wheelchair basketball. These events helped her attain the sense of teamwork she enjoyed in the Army and now can continue to enjoy with athletics. At the 2010 Warrior Games, she won a gold medal in cycling and a bronze medal in shot-put. These two achievements demonstrated to McKinney that with determination and passion, she could continue to succeed.
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SSG Seyward McKinney Returns to Warrior Games

Gary Sinise working hard for veterans

Lt. Dan Band
Gary Sinise – who co–founded the legendary Steppenwolf Theatre Company in the late 1970s and has enjoyed a successful career on stage, on television and in film – will be in Chicago tonight to perform with his Lt. Dan Band at Joe's Bar to benefit The Veterans Arts Program.

Gary Sinise heads home to Chicago to rock for veterans group
By Tom Lounges Times Correspondent

The tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, deeply affected Gary Sinise and inspired him to become a champion of veterans groups and events.

Sinise – who co–founded the legendary Steppenwolf Theatre Company in the late 1970s and has enjoyed a successful career on stage, on television and in film – will be in Chicago tonight to perform with his Lt. Dan Band at Joe's Bar to benefit The Veterans Arts Program.

Blue Island–born and raised actor/director/musician Gary Sinise said

The Chicago–based organization was co–founded by Kimo Williams, Sinise's musical partner in the Lt. Dan Band.

Sinise, a Blue Island–born and raised actor/director/musician, said it started out as "sort of a culture exchange program," but has since shifted to providing "artist tools" to injured veterans who want to move on in their lives and learn something in the arts, be it playing guitar, or taking up photography, or painting. The Veteran's Arts Program provides instruments and lessons to help enrich the lives of those who served their nation.

Sinise met Williams – a Vietnam veteran and professor at Columbia College – when both were part of Steppenwolf's 1997 production of "A Streetcar Named Desire." Sinise was acting and Williams was composing music for it.
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Gary Sinise heads home to Chicago

Philly thug steals disability check from wounded Marine!

Man Steals $22K From Disabled Veteran: Cops
Police are trying to identify a man who allegedly stole a disability check from a disabled veteran


By Scott Slotkin

Philadelphia Police are asking for your help in identifying a man accused of stealing $22,000 from a disabled veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps.

After waiting for and not receiving his $44,000 disability check, the 27-year old veteran reportedly contacted the U.S. Treasury Department to find out what happened.

His check, he was told, had already been deposited at a Bank of America on Street Road in Bensalem, Pa. bank, police said.
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Man Steals $22K From Disabled Vetera

San Diego Navy Wife begs for return of missing husband with PTSD

Missing sailor found

UPDATE - A San Diego sailor suffering from post traumatic stress disorder who had been missing for five days was located on Saturday.


Amanda Hamilton told San Diego 6 News her husband turned himself into police and is now receiving treatment at Balboa Naval Hospital.

Navy Wife begs for return of missing husband with PTSD

SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - A local Navy wife is desperate to find her missing husband, who has post traumatic stress disorder and hasn't been seen in days.

"My whole world is collapsing because this is the guy I was going to spend the rest of my life with," says Amanda Hamilton.

She and Nicholas married four and a half years ago and have two sons together. As a couple they've faced deployments, but the most recent deployment on the USS Ronald Reagan to provide humanitarian relief to Tsunami victims in Japan proved to be a tipping point, according to Amanda.

"He had a really bad flashback episode while on the Reagan," she says. Adding that flashback dealt with a previous humanitarian effort to retrieve bodies from the 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia.

"He took nearly 200 over the counter medications to try and end his life," she says.

That was March 25th of this year and Amanda says Nic was then flown to an Air Force Base in Japan for treatment and then sent back home to San Diego for further treatment on March 31st.

Since then he's regularly checked in twice a day to a Medical Hold unit at the Navy hospital, according to his wife, until May 1st when things unraveled.
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Navy Wife begs for return of missing husband with PTSD

Should We Reintroduce the Veteran Employment Assistance Act?

Guest Post

Should We Reintroduce the Veteran Employment Assistance Act?

By Marie Owens



Undoubtedly, the economic dynamic of employment in the United States has changed dramatically since the end of military conscription by the United States government. While all males over 18 years of age are still required to register for the draft, the lottery has not been active since the end of the Vietnam War. Similarly, while educational assistance based on past military status has been available in varying degrees since that time, employment assistance has been nominal, relying on veteran status priority in hiring since the end of the war. Thus, as it becomes tougher and tougher for veterans to find jobs and re-enter the work force once they have returned from overseas, many people, particularly those that have a criminal justice degree, have begun to wonder -- should we consider reintroducing the Veteran Employment Assistance Act?

The Employment Problem

Many of those who plan for a full military career often opt for the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) education program, being ushered into the military with an advanced rank as a commissioned officer. Other enlisted servicemen enter the military with a particular assignment in mind and come out of the service with training and education they have received during their tour of the duty. These individuals who complete their tour with an honorable discharge are commonly placed quickly with positions secured before their Estimated Termination of Service (ETS).

However, there are also many soldiers who enter the military as foot soldiers and often experience trouble securing employment when they return from what may have been multiple tours of duty in armed conflict. This due to the fact that these individuals have often been trained for special missions, and while this work is great, there simply is not an abundance of employment opportunities for people with their job titles (paratroopers, artillery specialists and tank operators) and skill sets in the United States.

Thus, for the myriad soldiers who fill active combat military roles there is a specific need for employment assistance, particularly for those who may have entered the military with a weak primary educational background or because of regional employment opportunities. Some of these veterans are good candidates for long-term training if they show a capacity for academics. While on the other hand, some are good candidates for industrial certifications. In any case, the majority of veterans would simply like assistance in securing employment with a salary that is at least comparable to what they were earning while enlisted. It is a general consensus that they have earned that benefit.

In the past, many of these servicemen were covered by the S. 3234 and was designed to build on the existing restrictive legislation, allowing veterans to use educational benefits while drawing a stipend during their training period. It would also broaden the approved training alternatives, enhancing the current 9/11 GI Bill of Rights and the National Guard Employment Enhancement Program.

The Congressional Budget Office studied the financial impact of the legislation and the cost amounted to an average of $1 per person in the United States. Yet, even with one-fifth of the Senate body signing onto the legislation, it did not make it to the floor. This means that the laws that are currently in force are all that veterans have to rely on when it comes to finding a job when they return from overseas.

Disabled Veterans

The fallout of the Middle East military conflicts has created a new generation of veterans who have enlisted, often on salesmanship of the different military branches, and been strapped into an armed conflict that was never anticipated. In addition, many have been commissioned back into active combat or had tours extended because so many of people have decided to avoid military enlistment as a viable means of building a career. As a result, many of those who enlist to fight are coming home as multiple amputees or suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from concussive head injuries. This has created a specific demographic within the veteran community.

This particular group is at severe risk of being ostracized by potential employers regardless of the sacrifice that they have given for their country. Their sacrifice is much more than the time and battle scars. It is a life altering experience that deserves case-by-case attention. Therefore, introducing legislation to assist these veterans and then allowing the bill to "table," or expire, is for many citizens an unacceptable action of the United States representative body.

Conclusion

It is well understood that the U.S. military is the primary peacekeeper in the world. In fact, the American way of life is largely a result of the work that all military veterans have done to secure what many Americans take for granted. However, the employment market is shifting dramatically as the military does its necessary work overseas. As a result, many veterans have come home to find that there aren’t any jobs available, or none that are applicable to the skill set they have acquired while enlisted. Although there are standard educational opportunities for veterans to improve their knowledge base, just as there are for the civilians, this section of the U.S. society has clearly earned serious consideration for employment programs that will provide them with extra help when integrating back into society after being overseas. These programs should be similar to the Veteran Employment Assistance Act, and should ensure that veterans can obtain employment in the field of their choice, given their individual abilities. The on-the-job training that they receive in the military is often not applicable to the world at home and it is time for the same Congress that sent them into battle to help them readjust when they return home.

Marie writes for the blog at criminaljusticedegree.net and as a prospective law student in Washington state, is particularly interested in criminal law and gender issues. She writes to promote criminal justice education, and teaches martial arts in her spare time.

We needed better than us

There is a lot of talk about if Osama's death pictures should be shown or not. Today Bill Bennett was on CNN and said that pictures are needed after murders but failed to mention the fact the general public doesn't get to see the pictures unless there is a body covered up by a sheet. Only the jury, judge and lawyers get to see them. They need to see them but the public doesn't. Bennett must be watching too much TV to get that fact mixed up with what he wants released. We don't need to see a dead Osama as much as we want to see them.

Today something wonderful happened and it had nothing to do with politics. Today it was all about the people this nation lost almost 10 years ago. These are some of the pictures we should want to see now that the man behind so much pain is dead.

That's what we really should be talking about now. When we needed the best of us to show up after the planes hit the towers, the firemen and cops showed up. The best of us were there no matter if the people in trouble were Democrats, Republicans, Independents or didn't vote at all. They didn't care about anything other than people needed help. Goodness rose out of the pit of hell Osama tried to create.

Block after block around the country in huge cities and tiny towns flew flags outside their homes and on their cars. Politics faded away and every member of congress stood together in a moment of silence, united in grief just as the rest of the nation did. We held the firemen and police officers in our prayers, but then people played politics and tried to keep them from getting what they needed to take care of their health afterwards. Today it was about them.

We waved flags and sent young men and women off to fight against the people behind the attacks, then we turned our backs on them when it took too long, cost us too much money and the wounded just got too expensive to take care of. While most of the country thinks the troops are home instead of 150,000 still risking their lives far away from their homes and families, they do it everyday anyway.

We took down our flags a long time ago and ended up just putting them up for the 4th of July as if the flags were just one more decoration to put up in celebration of a day off of work forgetting that over 5,000 of their bodies have come home covered in a flag that was paid for with their lives.

When people allow the best of us to be forgotten and ignored, let politics trump all else, then we will be wondering why no one is showing up when the rest of us need the best of us.

Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride at White House

A participant in the Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride heads to the South Lawn of the White House through the Diplomatic Reception Room before the start of their ride, May 4, 2011. The President welcomed the group to the White House in advance of their fifth annual ride on Friday and Saturday. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

This afternoon, the South Lawn of the White House was full of veterans, military families, and their bicycles, as the Wounded Warrior Project's Soldier Ride came to the White House. The Soldier Ride started as a way to help wounded soldiers recover from their injuries through adaptive cycling. Nearly a decade later, the program has expanded to involve civilians as well, raising money for and promoting the cause of America's wounded warriors.

In welcoming the riders, President Obama said a few words about the beginnings of the Soldier Ride effort:

Today is a reminder -- as Michelle and Jill Biden have already said -- that every American, every single person in this country, can do something to support our remarkable troops and their families. Everybody can do something.

So seven years ago, a bartender from Long Island had the same idea. He wasn’t from a military family. He had never served in the military. But he knew that he owed our military something. He was just an ordinary American who was grateful for the service of all those who wear the uniform. And he said, “I just wanted to give something back.”

So he jumped on his bike and rode across the country -- over 5,000 miles -- to raise funds and awareness for our wounded warriors. Today, there are Soldier Rides all across America giving our wounded warriors the confidence and support they need to recover. That’s the difference a single person can make. Today we want to thank Chris Carney and everyone from the Wounded Warrior Project for reminding us of our obligations to each other as Americans.

After taking special note of a few individual soldiers with whom he had met before, President Obama thanked the riders for the inspiration they provide him and so many other Americans:

So to all the riders here today, I want to say, as your Commander-in-Chief and as an American, thank you. We are grateful for you. You represent the very best in America. And in your fight to recover and in the ride that you’re about to begin, we see the values and virtues that make our country great.

We may take a hit. We may endure great loss. But we are a strong and resilient people. We push on. We persevere. We’re confident in our cause. And we know that, like generations of Americans before us, we will emerge stronger than before.
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Wounded Warrior Project Soldier's Ride

Fort Wainwright buried toxic waste cleaned up during construction for housing

Toxic waste cleaned up at Army housing project
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday May 5, 2011 12:07:32 EDT
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Toxic waste discovered during the construction of housing at Fort Wainwright has been cleaned up.

The discovery of the buried toxic waste in 2005 delayed the completion of the 55-unit development known as Taku Gardens at the Fairbanks base. It also delayed occupation of the housing. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner says the housing now is slated to open October 2012.

Joe Malen, the Army’s cleanup manager, said at a town hall Tuesday that the top level of soil is now considered safe. But tenants will not be able to dig wells or garden without using raised beds because of contamination deep in the soil.

The cleanup of Taku Gardens cost more than $21 million. The Army used the area as a dumping ground in the 1940s and 1950s.
Toxic waste cleaned up at Army housing project

Wilson expects to fund benefits improvements as long as he can take some away

Wilson expects to fund benefits improvements
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 4, 2011 13:16:54 EDT
The chairman of the House subcommittee responsible for military benefits said Wednesday he is “very hopeful” of finding money to pay for some major benefits improvements next week when the House Armed Services Committee takes up the 2012 defense budget.

Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., chairman of the committee’s personnel panel, said he is looking for money to pay for improvements in reserve retired pay, to reduce the so-called “widow’s tax” that cuts military survivor benefits for those also receiving such benefits from the Veterans Affairs Department, and to prevent a proposed retail pharmacy co-pay increase for new prescriptions for acute ailments.

Wilson said he is not making promises for large and sweeping changes, but he believes committee aides have identified some sources of funding from within the defense budget that could be tapped to pay for modest changes in those three programs.

Wilson has the support of the panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Susan Davis of California, in his effort to find a way around budget rules that limit sources of funding.

“I am an optimist, and I believe we can do things,” Wilson said. “I’m not saying we can do it all, but that we can take some steps in the right direction.”

Wilson made no mention of finding money for another cause he has long supported: complete elimination of the offset in military retired pay for those also receiving veterans disability compensation.

Committee aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they have located possible sources of funding that Wilson and Davis could use, but they did not want to say more, out of fear that someone else might claim the money for another addition to the defense bill.

“Let’s just say that to get something, you have to give something, so we can find money if we are willing to cut, and we are willing to cut,” said one aide.
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Wilson expects to fund benefits improvements

Soldier kicked out for being in wrong unit over substance abuse

Their future should not depend on who their commanders are or what rules they apply. Over the last ten years there have been many reports of soldiers using alcohol and drugs to stop feeling the effects of combat but finding help instead of discharges. Unfortunately there there have also been too many given the "bums rush" out the door cutting them off from everything as a member of the military as well as what they would have received as a veteran.

They lose their military pay and benefits including housing and when they need it the most, their healthcare. Where do you think they can go after serving and suffering for doing it when they have been cut off from everything?

They lose the chance to go to college topped off with the fact that most companies won't hire a dishonorably discharged veteran especially when there are so many honorably discharged veterans with medals looking for work when employers won't hire them. They lose the VA healthcare along with compensation for wounds they received including TBI and PTSD. They lose support from organizations, most with bylaws regarding conditions that the veteran was honorably discharged.

Their future should not depend on who they served under but it does. How do you tell a soldier like Bill Surwillo that his service leading to all of his suffering just killed off his future but others found the help they needed and are still in or going to college or being treated for what combat did to them? Then how to you tell him that had they left him alone for one more day, he would have received everything he should have? How do you tell him that? How do you explain to him that while he served at Lewis-McChord and lost it all, if he served under another commander, he would be in treatment and see his service appreciated? Four years in a unit that went through hell and they couldn't give him one more day to heal his life?

Combat Vet Loses GI Bill Over Pot And Spice
Austin Jenkins
05/03/2011

TRANSCRIPT

NEAR JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – Here's a soldier's tale. Bill Surwillo deploys to Afghanistan. Nearly a quarter of his platoon is killed. He comes home with PTSD. He turns to marijuana and spice – a synthetic version of the drug – to relax. The Army kicks him out and takes away his GI Bill. Is this fair?


I meet Bill Surwillo at a noisy café just outside the gates of Joint Base Lewis-McChord. His car is packed and he's ready to head home to Wisconsin. He's been kicked out of the Army for drug use one day shy of his official end of service date – and he's bitter.

Bill Surwillo: "I gave my life to that unit for the past four years."

Surwillo is especially upset the Army took away his college benefits. He wanted go to trade school to become a plumber or welder.

Sitting next to him in the café booth is his friend and fellow battle buddy, Nick White. Over the din, they describe the chaos in both their lives since they returned home.

That leads them to war stories from what they call their "gnarly" deployment to Afghanistan.

Surwillo tells me about one of the many roadside bombs that maimed and killed his friends and fellow soldiers.
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Combat Vet Loses GI Bill Over Pot And Spice

Chaplains ponder ethics of celebrating bin Laden's death

Honestly there are many things people do not agree on. This is one of them and has nothing to do with being a Chaplain or even a Christian since we can't agree on much else anyway. The death penalty is another thing people cannot agree on. So let's stop trying to. Why can't we just agree that the long nightmare that began in the 90's is over and may the souls killed because of Osama rest in peace?

Chaplains ponder ethics of celebrating bin Laden's death
By PATRICK DICKSON
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 4, 2011

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Army Chaplain (Maj.) Mitchel Tulloss was pondering whether it was acceptable, from a theological standpoint, for the soldiers he counsels in Afghanistan to rejoice over the killing of Osama bin Laden when he abruptly excused himself from a telephone interview. He had to check on noises he thought were incoming fire.

Navy Chaplain (Cmdr.) Philip J. Pelikan, an Eastern Orthodox priest who spent a year with Marines in Helmand province, Afghanistan, from 2009-2010, said he understood the instinct to celebrate, but hoped to appeal to servicemembers’ better selves.

“When you’ve been in the morgue and seen our guys, the temptation to rejoice when the bad guys get it is a strong one,” he said. “I think we have to fight those tendencies to celebrate or rejoice in the death of anyone.”
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Chaplains ponder ethics of celebrating bin Laden's death

Fort Carson Chaplain: 'I'm Not Going To Lose Any Sleep'

Army Wives Of Deployed Soldiers, Recently Returned Soldiers React To Bin Laden Death

Marshall Zelinger, 7NEWS Content Producer/Presenter
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Military families in Colorado Springs continue to deal with the unknown even though Osama bin Laden has been killed.

Outside of the main gate at Fort Carson is the Global War on Terrorism Fallen Soldier Memorial Wall. The names of 282 Fort Carson soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq since Sept. 11 have been etched into rocks. On May 26, the names of 17 more soldiers killed in the last year will be added to the memorial.
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Missouri National Guardsmen rescue 93-year-old from car

Guardsmen rescue 93-year-old from car
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday May 4, 2011 11:07:09 EDT

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. — Two members of the Missouri National Guard are getting recognition after their rescue, captured on videotape, of a 93-year-old woman from a flooded roadway along the Black River in Poplar Bluff.
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Guardsmen rescue 93-year-old from car

Missing Iraq Veteran Jerry Beck Showed Signs of PTSD

Wife: Missing Iraq Veteran Jerry Beck Showed Signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Jennifer Beck said she last saw her husband April 26 at their home in Georgia. His abandoned car was tagged April 27, and linked to him three days later, after being found on Interstate 75, beneath the Leroy Selmon Crosstown Expressway.
By Linda Chion Kenney


Uncertainty, fear and anger overshadow the life of Jennifer Beck as she awaits word — any word — about her missing husband, U.S. Army Specialist Jerry James Beck, whose green Toyota Corolla was found abandoned on Interstate 75, underneath the Leroy Selmon Crosstown Expressway outside of Greater Brandon.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is treating this disappearance as a missing-person case and is seeking the public’s help. So are police in Hinesville, Ga., near Savannah, where Beck, 35, was stationed at Fort Stewart.

Beck’s car was first spotted by Road Rangers for the Florida Department of Transportation, who tagged the car as abandoned on April 27, one day after Beck’s disappearance and the same day Jennifer Beck reported him missing.

It wasn’t until April 30 that the car was linked to Jerry Beck, who used to live in Florida and has friends in the Tampa Bay area.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office at 813-247-8200. Or, the Hinesville Police Department at 912-368-8215.

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Missing Iraq Veteran Jerry Beck