Iraq Veteran locked up for "not being a citizen"

Veteran of Iraq War Now Fights His Own Deportation
By SUSANNAH NESMITH
Published: June 23, 2011

“We don’t often incarcerate war-hero-type people for making a false statement on a passport application,” Mr. Mervis said. “It’s a case that should never have been prosecuted criminally. This is just wrong.”

MIAMI — A veteran of both the Army and the Navy who served with distinction in Iraq and at Guantánamo Bay has spent the last month in federal lockup here because the government wants to deport him.

Not only did he lie on a passport application, prosecutors say, but he was never even a citizen.

But a lawyer for the man, Elisha L. Dawkins, 26, has a different story, one that begins with Mr. Dawkins’s arrival here from the Bahamas as an infant. He was raised to believe he was a citizen, his lawyer contends, something the state and federal authorities did not challenge during his seven years in the military.

It is unclear why Mr. Dawkins was indicted in March, five years after receiving his passport and when he was still in the Navy.

“The military believes he’s an American citizen,” the lawyer, Clark Mervis, told Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of Federal District Court here last week, noting that Mr. Dawkins had “secret” security clearance when he served in Guantánamo.
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Veteran of Iraq War Now Fights His Own Deportation

Veterans Court helps wrongly accused veteran heal

Man wrongly accused of murder placed on probation for gun violation
Published: Thursday, June 23, 2011 9:09 p.m. MDT
By Dennis Romboy, Deseret News

Utah County authorities dropped charges against the Mortensens last December after two other suspects were arrested. One pleaded guilty to aggravated murder this month; the other awaits trial.

SALT LAKE CITY — A Payson man wrongly accused of killing his father will be placed on probation for violating federal firearms law.

U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell sentenced Roger Kay Mortensen to 36 months probation and ordered him to continue participating in the veteran's court program. Campbell also told Mortensen, 49, that she will closely monitor him in light of a recent verbal altercation in which he threateningly shouted, "I just got out of jail for murder."

"I believe you can make it," she said. "But that doesn't mean I won't be watching very carefully because I will."

Mortensen suffered a traumatic brain injury in an ATV accident in 1994 that left him with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anger management issues. As a Navy veteran, he qualified for federal veteran's court which operates much like drug court. He has attended the court since being charged and is on medication and seeing a psychologist.
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Man wrongly accused of murder placed on probation

New Tricare fees, end to combat pay 'windfall' voted

Makes perfect sense to me since these same folks wanted to make sure corporations kept tax cuts, when we got job cuts and cut backs but we also need to remember when it came to wars, they voted for them but never thought about paying for them before, durning and especially after.

Military Update: New Tricare fees, end to combat pay 'windfall' voted
By TOM PHILPOTT
Special to Stars and Stripes
Published: June 23, 2011
The Senate Armed Services Committee has agreed with House colleagues to approve a small increase in Tricare Prime enrollment fees for working-age retirees, and to allow these fees to be raised annually by the percentage cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) applied to military retired pay.

The vote ensures that Tricare Prime enrollment fees for individual retirees under age 65 will be raised in the new fiscal year by $30, to $260 a year, and that retiree family coverage will climb by $60, to $520. These will be the first fee increases since Tricare rates were set in 1995.

The Senate panel also joined with the House to endorse an Obama administration plan to restructure Tricare pharmacy co-payments to encourage use of mail order for refills instead of having local drugstores, at far greater cost to the government, refill prescriptions for chronic conditions.
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New Tricare fees, end to combat pay 'windfall' voted

Army veteran pleads in Westboro stalking case

He is a double amputee, deciding to "stand up" to Westboro hate group but he ends up with two years probation. They get to do what they want and when they want, stalking any family they want, but get away with it? How is this justice?

Army veteran pleads in Westboro stalking case
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jun 23, 2011 14:23:20 EDT
WICHITA, Kan. — An Army veteran charged with stalking and conspiring to harm members of a controversial Topeka church pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

An attorney for Ryan Newell says his client pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of false impersonation of an officer, which are misdemeanors.
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Army veteran pleads in Westboro stalking case

Son’s suicide followed tour of duty in Afghanistan

‘A different person came home’
Father: Son’s suicide followed tour of duty in Afghanistan
By The Canadian Press
Wed, Jun 22 - 4:54 AM
GLACE BAY — The father of a Canadian soldier who committed suicide last week says his son might not have been in Afghanistan when he died, but he died because of his time there.

Cpl. James McMullin, 29, who was stationed at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, N.B., was found dead Friday at his home near the base.

Originally from Glace Bay, McMullin served in Afghanistan for six months and his tour ended in March 2009.

"If I could tell anyone anything about Jamie after he came back from Afghanistan . . . he never came back," said Darrell McMullin, the soldier’s father.

"A different person came home. He couldn’t forget what he did over there, he couldn’t get past it. He tried to make everyone happy and smile, but when he was alone he didn’t smile."

Capt. John Hugh MacDonald, a Forces spokesman, said the death of McMullin is under investigation by the RCMP and will also be the subject of a military inquiry.

"It’s automatic — the military will convene a board of inquiry," he said.
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A different person came home

US Troops Heavily Medicated on Prescription Drugs, Report Warns

Yesterday I posted about how giving medication alone was not working for a reason.

Telling veterans to only pop pills, nails coffins

Now here's more news that you need to know.

"The medications they use shouldn't be so heavily prescribed in combat," said Dr. Judith Broder, a psychiatrist and founder of the Soldiers Project, a nonprofit counseling service.


"But they can't afford to send anyone home. They need the bodies -- health and welfare are secondary," she said.

US Troops Heavily Medicated on Prescription Drugs, Report Warns
Updated: Wednesday, 22 Jun 2011, 3:39 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 22 Jun 2011, 3:02 PM EDT

(The Daily) - Men and women in the US military are more medicated than ever -- and their doctors do not even know who takes what, The Daily reported Wednesday.

The Department of Defense does not keep track of medical prescriptions doled out to service members in combat, despite ongoing pleas from federal officials to do just that.

Last week, a report on the military's 2012 budget from the House Appropriations Committee remarked that the prescription of pain management drugs is handled inconsistently, especially in battle.

The report also handed down an ultimatum: within two months of the budget's approval, the committee wants concrete information on "the required steps and potential obstacles toward electronic transmission of prescription drug data."

A 2010 US Army study found that 14 percent of soldiers had been prescribed an opiate painkiller, with 95 percent of those prescriptions for oxycodone, a notoriously-addictive pharmaceutical best known by the brand name OxyContin.

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US Troops Heavily Medicated on Prescription Drugs

Unseen Wounds of War: Serving the Mental Health Needs of Our Troops

Posted February 20th, 2011 by USNavySeals

In a previous post, we talked about the increased use of psychiatric prescription drugs among troops who fought – and are still fighting – in the Iraqi and Afghan wars. This increase in medications is brought about by the various mental health conditions that service members and combat veterans face.

That being said, however, the same feature on The New York Times shared that the military continues to report a shortage of therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists. It seems that medications are more readily available, when compared against the medical professionals who have the license to prescribe them.
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Serving the Mental Health Needs of Our Troops

Army Widow Channels Grief Into Running

Army Widow Channels Grief Into Running
Austin Jenkins
06/22/2011

DUPONT, Wash. — This weekend, an Army widow named Lisa Hallett will lead a group of runners in Seattle's Rock 'n' Roll marathon and half-marathon. They are members of a running club that formed during an especially deadly deployment of Washington-based soldiers to Afghanistan. For Hallett and her teammates, running has become not only a way to remember their loved ones, but an outlet for their grief.

It's a Saturday morning in DuPont, Washington – just across Interstate 5 from Joint Base Lewis-McChord. More than 350 people in blue shirts have gathered in a local park.

"Moment of silence please."

Army Lt. Ben Hunter leads a weekly ritual. Members of the group call out the names of fallen soldiers – starting with the 5th Stryker Brigade.

Hunter calls out, "From 1-17 infantry Sgt. Troy Tom, Pfc. Jonathan Yanney, Capt. John Hallett."

Dozens of names later, the circle breaks up. Shoe laces are tied, maps are checked and then they're off - a ribbon of blue snaking through the wooded park trails, the sound of footfalls on pavement.

Wear Blue: Run to Remember is a group of military families, supporters and even soldiers who gather each week to run and remember the war dead.

Founder Lisa Hallett says she first got serious about running when her Army husband went to Ranger school.
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Army Widow Channels Grief Into Running

Dad of arson suspect who jumped off overpass: Gov't didn't help with PTSD

Dad of arson suspect who jumped off overpass: Gov't didn't help with PTSD

by Rucks Russell / KHOU 11 News
khou.com
Posted on June 22, 2011

HOUSTON—The father of a suspected serial arsonist blames the government for not doing enough to help his son fight post traumatic stress disorder.

"He needed help and they didn’t step up to the plate," said the man, who asked not to be identified.

The man’s son, Stanley White, jumped to his death from a highway overpass Tuesday morning. Authorities suspected the 28-year-old of setting several fires at apartment complexes and houses throughout southwest Houston.

According to his father, White was an Army veteran and served as a mine-sweeper in the last Iraq war.

"He went over one way but came back a different man," said his father. "Sometimes I would look in his eyes and not know where he was. I didn’t see the child I raised."
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Dad of arson suspect who jumped off overpass


Father: Suspected serial arsonist was veteran who suffered from PTSD
by Nakia Cooper & Courtney Zubowski / khou.com
khou.com
Posted on June 21, 2011

HOUSTON— The young man suspected in several arson fires was a veteran of the Iraq War who suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, according to his father.

The suspect, whose name hasn't been released, died early Tuesday after jumping 70 feet from Highway 59 during a police chase.

The suspect’s father was visibly distraught hours after learning of his death.

The father, who didn’t want to be identified, said his son was traumatized in the Army when he served as a minesweeper during the war.
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Suspected serial arsonist was veteran who suffered from PTSD

Red Cross unveiling military emergency call center

REGION: Red Cross unveiling military emergency call center

By MARK WALKER mlwalker@nctimes.com

The San Diego Chapter of the American Red Cross has hired nearly three dozen workers as it launches the agency's only military emergency call center west of the Mississippi River.

Set for unveiling on Thursday, the San Diego center is expected to deliver as many as 170,000 such messages involving significant family news to more than 60,000 troops stationed worldwide.

"We're extremely honored and excited to chosen as only one of four calling sites across the country," said San Diego Red Cross spokeswoman Teri Klemchuk.

Thursday's ceremony begins at 10 a.m. at the call center, 3950 Calle Fortunada, San Diego. A variety of military officials and community leaders are expected to attend.

Red Cross officials have moved in recent months to streamline services and cut administrative costs, leading to consolidating call centers into the San Diego site along with ones at Fort Sill, Okla., Louisville, Ky., and Springfield, Mass.
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Red Cross unveiling military emergency call center

Major Benjamin C. “Pat” Hartman Jr. died in Vietnam has bridge in his name

Local bridge dedicated to Vietnam veteran
Hero remembered 43 years later

Written by
Eric Miller
Hendersonville Star News

Tim Hartman has very few memories of his war hero father, but the ones he has are precious. Tim was only four years old when his father, Army pilot Major Benjamin C. “Pat” Hartman Jr. died in Vietnam on Sept. 19, 1968.

Nearly 43 years later, on June 17, Tim Hartman gathered with family members, public officials and local residents to remember his father and dedicate a bridge in his honor on Vietnam Veterans Boulevard at the Center Point Road exit in Hendersonville.
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Local bridge dedicated to Vietnam veteran