Teenager dies in Camp Pendleton house fire
Written by
Pauline Repard
CAMP PENDLETON — A Marine’s 13-year-old daughter died Thursday morning after a fire swept through their single-family home on base at Camp Pendleton, officials said.
The fire broke out about 6:30 a.m. in the O’Neil Heights military housing area, in the southeastern part of the base near the Naval hospital, base spokesman Sgt. John Jackson said.
One Camp Pendleton firefighter was taken to Tri-City Medical Center for treatment of burns and smoke inhalation, Jackson said.
read more here
Friday, August 26, 2011
Troops photograph every Arlington grave
Troops photograph every Arlington grave
August 26, 2011 5:21 AM
KIMBERLY HEFLING
Associated Press
ARLINGTON, Va. — Night after night this summer, troops from the Army's historic Old Guard have left their immaculately pressed dress blues, white gloves and shiny black boots at home to slip into Arlington National Cemetery in T-shirts and flip-flops to photograph each and every grave with an iPhone.
The sometimes eerie task to photograph more than 219,000 grave markers and the front of more than 43,000 sets of cremated remains in the columbarium is part of the Army's effort to account for every grave and to update and fully digitize the cemetery's maps. The Old Guard performs its work at night to escape the summer heat and to avoid interrupting funerals.
Last year a scandal over mismanagement at the nation's most hallowed burial ground revealed unmarked and mismarked graves. Congress then mandated that the cemetery account for the graves of the more than 330,000 people interred in the cemetery. Markers may bear more than one name, such as a service member and spouse.
The photos taken at night are matched with other records to find the discrepancies that need to be fixed, a process officials say is too early to draw any conclusions. Military officials hope they can eventually use the photos to create an online database for the public.
read more here
August 26, 2011 5:21 AM
KIMBERLY HEFLING
Associated Press
ARLINGTON, Va. — Night after night this summer, troops from the Army's historic Old Guard have left their immaculately pressed dress blues, white gloves and shiny black boots at home to slip into Arlington National Cemetery in T-shirts and flip-flops to photograph each and every grave with an iPhone.
The sometimes eerie task to photograph more than 219,000 grave markers and the front of more than 43,000 sets of cremated remains in the columbarium is part of the Army's effort to account for every grave and to update and fully digitize the cemetery's maps. The Old Guard performs its work at night to escape the summer heat and to avoid interrupting funerals.
Last year a scandal over mismanagement at the nation's most hallowed burial ground revealed unmarked and mismarked graves. Congress then mandated that the cemetery account for the graves of the more than 330,000 people interred in the cemetery. Markers may bear more than one name, such as a service member and spouse.
The photos taken at night are matched with other records to find the discrepancies that need to be fixed, a process officials say is too early to draw any conclusions. Military officials hope they can eventually use the photos to create an online database for the public.
read more here
Some 9/11 Charities Failed Miserably
Some 9/11 Charities Failed Miserably
August 25, 2011
Associated Press|by Brett J. Blackledge and David B. Caruso
NEW YORK - Americans eager to give after the 9/11 terrorist attacks poured $1.5 billion into hundreds of charities established to serve the victims, their families and their memories. But a decade later, an Associated Press investigation shows that many of those nonprofits have failed miserably.
There are those that spent huge sums on themselves, those that cannot account for the money they received, those that have few results to show for their spending and those that have yet to file required income tax returns. Yet many of the charities continue to raise money in the name of Sept. 11.
One charity raised more than $700,000 for a giant memorial quilt, but there is no quilt. Another raised more than $4 million to help victims, but didn't account publicly for how it spent all of the money. A third helps support a 9/11 flag sold by the founder's for-profit company.
read more here
August 25, 2011
Associated Press|by Brett J. Blackledge and David B. Caruso
NEW YORK - Americans eager to give after the 9/11 terrorist attacks poured $1.5 billion into hundreds of charities established to serve the victims, their families and their memories. But a decade later, an Associated Press investigation shows that many of those nonprofits have failed miserably.
There are those that spent huge sums on themselves, those that cannot account for the money they received, those that have few results to show for their spending and those that have yet to file required income tax returns. Yet many of the charities continue to raise money in the name of Sept. 11.
One charity raised more than $700,000 for a giant memorial quilt, but there is no quilt. Another raised more than $4 million to help victims, but didn't account publicly for how it spent all of the money. A third helps support a 9/11 flag sold by the founder's for-profit company.
read more here
Families say "help" for PTSD is not there
OEF stands for Operation Enduring Freedom. It began in 2001 when troops were sent into Afghanistan. Ten years later, the fact too many are enduring the emotional pain caused by war it should be clear that while many have returned from war, they have not found freedom from it.
If you read this, there can be little doubt that the claims the DOD make about addressing PTSD and combat stress, are nothing more than claims.
The 11 potential suicides would set a record at JBLM. There were nine suicides on the base in 2010.
This following statement is misleading at best, uninformed at worst.
"The leaders at Joint Base Lewis-McChord say the Army now has dozens of programs aimed at preventing suicide.""Now" would suggest that they learned from the mistakes of the past and just addressed it. The problem is, they began all of these "programs" back in 2003 for Iraq and Afghanistan troops.
While they pretended there was nothing before this, the truth is, there were programs going all the way back to the 70's for Vietnam Veterans. Research started because they demanded it. To end up with this many suicides after they came out with the programs proves they are not working.
"Aimed at suicide prevention" is also misleading because while they have saved lives, the numbers would have gone down on successful suicides. As bad as the number of attempted suicides are, it is one more indication the "programs they now have" are not working any more than they worked back in 2003 when they came out with their "Battlemind" program.
They would not need suicide prevention if any of their other programs worked in the first place. They would have to be totally blind to the data coming into the Suicide Prevention Hotline proving yet again, the programs to help them after war, are just not there.
Then we have this report.
'If you're going to ask for help ... they're going to chastise you'
By Keith Eldridge Published: Aug 22, 2011
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- A record-setting month for soldier suicides has the U.S. Army taking the offensive, saying it's making every effort to prevent them.
But the families of some of those soldiers say the military is not doing enough.
The Army says suicide prevention is a top priority, with scores of programs in place to help identify someone in trouble. But several families of the soldiers who took their own lives say the programs are falling short, and their loved ones paid the price.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are really taking their toll, both in the combat field and in the heads of soldiers. The Army says July hit a record for potential suicides at 22.
The mother of Spc. Jonathon Gilbert says her son committed suicide in Lakewood because he didn't want to return to combat after one tour in Iraq.
read more here
The fact redeployments increase the risk of PTSD by 50% for each time sent back into combat did not change the fact the DOD still does it.
"Just one month earlier, the wife of Army Ranger Jared Hagemann says her husband committed suicide on base because he didn't want to be deployed a ninth time."
Ten years of war and a ninth tour of duty? How could anyone think this would end well?
We keep heading onto YouTube links when there is a video of soldiers acting silly, dancing to the sound track of a pop star but we don't head onto videos about what they come home to. Yesterday there was a video of a dog laying by the casket of Navy SEAL Officer Jon Tumilson that made it into the emails of people around the world. It was touching but while families are touched by funerals everyday that did not need to happen, no one is watching their tributes or doing anything to ease their grief.
Ask them what they want after they had to bury a son or daughter because of military suicide and they will tell you they want no other family to suffer the way they are. Ask a wife after she has had to endure months or years after her husband came back from war changed as she stands near his casket what she wants. She will tell you that she doesn't want any more families to have to endure that pain or watch their children grow up knowing their Dad took his own life.
Dying in combat is considered to be the ultimate sacrifice. Families know the doorbell can ring at any moment. Dying after they have come home because of combat by taking their own lives is the direct result of the failures of this nation. How long will we accept the claims the DOD makes while they cannot endure coming home?
Thursday, August 25, 2011
"For those I love I will sacrifice"
UPDATE
Wounded Big Red One Soldier continues to serve Army family
Army
By Mollie Miller, 1st Infantry Division Public Affairs
January 9, 2012
FORT RILEY, Kan. (Jan. 9, 2012) -- Love can make people do some crazy, unusual, heroic things.
A dance outside in a rain storm, a midnight flight across the country, a dash into a burning home, none of these are outside the realm of what people will do for those they love.
For one 1st Infantry Division Soldier, his love for his family and his country led him into an Army recruiter's office, onto basic training, up the road to Fort Riley, Kan., and around the world to Afghanistan.
And then that love led him right to death's front door.
Pfc. Kyle Hockenberry, 4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, joined the Army in the fall of 2010 after a summer full of friends, dirt bikes and post high school graduation parties. Joining the Army was the realization of a dream for the young man from Marietta, Ohio.
"I always wanted to serve my country, protect our freedom, to keep the life that all the ones I love live safe," the 19-year-old said recently.
Hockenberry's enlistment wasn't much of a surprise for his parents, Chet and Kathy Hockenberry.
"Being a Soldier was all Kyle ever talked about, even when he was little," Kathy said of her youngest son. "I still have all his G.I. Joe guys that he always used to play with because he didn't want me to get rid of them."
Kyle graduated from basic training in January 2011 and was assigned to the Big Red One's 4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment "Pale Riders." The Pale Rider team was already busy making final preparations for a deployment to Afghanistan when Kyle arrived and the new Soldier began his own preparations for this upcoming mission -- a mission that would have him leaving Kansas in less than six weeks.
First on Kyle's list of deployment preparations was a visit to a tattoo shop in Manhattan, Kan.
"I had wanted a tattoo for a long time and I wanted to finally get one before we left," he said.
One evening, shortly before the deployment, Kyle and a few fellow Soldiers "went under the needle." One of the Soldiers had his children's names or birth dates tattooed, some had a lucky number or special picture done but Kyle selected a seven word phrase that had been rolling around in his head ever since he decided he was going to be a Soldier.
That night, the tattoo artist etched, "For those I love, I will sacrifice" onto Kyle's right side.
"I thought since I was in the military that it would be a good one to get," he said. "'Those I love' is for everyone -- for my parents, my brother and all my family but it really for everyone in the country."
read more here
Time had an update on this story
Wounded Big Red One Soldier continues to serve Army family
Army
By Mollie Miller, 1st Infantry Division Public Affairs
January 9, 2012
A dance outside in a rain storm, a midnight flight across the country, a dash into a burning home, none of these are outside the realm of what people will do for those they love.
For one 1st Infantry Division Soldier, his love for his family and his country led him into an Army recruiter's office, onto basic training, up the road to Fort Riley, Kan., and around the world to Afghanistan.
And then that love led him right to death's front door.
Pfc. Kyle Hockenberry, 4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, joined the Army in the fall of 2010 after a summer full of friends, dirt bikes and post high school graduation parties. Joining the Army was the realization of a dream for the young man from Marietta, Ohio.
"I always wanted to serve my country, protect our freedom, to keep the life that all the ones I love live safe," the 19-year-old said recently.
Hockenberry's enlistment wasn't much of a surprise for his parents, Chet and Kathy Hockenberry.
"Being a Soldier was all Kyle ever talked about, even when he was little," Kathy said of her youngest son. "I still have all his G.I. Joe guys that he always used to play with because he didn't want me to get rid of them."
Kyle graduated from basic training in January 2011 and was assigned to the Big Red One's 4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment "Pale Riders." The Pale Rider team was already busy making final preparations for a deployment to Afghanistan when Kyle arrived and the new Soldier began his own preparations for this upcoming mission -- a mission that would have him leaving Kansas in less than six weeks.
First on Kyle's list of deployment preparations was a visit to a tattoo shop in Manhattan, Kan.
"I had wanted a tattoo for a long time and I wanted to finally get one before we left," he said.
One evening, shortly before the deployment, Kyle and a few fellow Soldiers "went under the needle." One of the Soldiers had his children's names or birth dates tattooed, some had a lucky number or special picture done but Kyle selected a seven word phrase that had been rolling around in his head ever since he decided he was going to be a Soldier.
That night, the tattoo artist etched, "For those I love, I will sacrifice" onto Kyle's right side.
"I thought since I was in the military that it would be a good one to get," he said. "'Those I love' is for everyone -- for my parents, my brother and all my family but it really for everyone in the country."
read more here
"For those I love I will sacrifice" pretty much sums up how they all feel. They are ready to face danger and ready to save a life even if it means they lose their own. If you want to see how much they care about each other, go to the link below and see the pictures going with this article. If you want to know why they are willing to do all of this, read it and know this isn't about killing. It is about caring.
Pfc. Kyle Hockenberry, of 4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Infantry Regiment, 1st Heavy Combat Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, who was injured in an improvised explosive device attack near Haji Ramuddin, is treated by flight medic Cpl. Amanda Mosher while being transported by medevac helicopter to the Role 3 hospital at Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan on June 15, 2011. Laura Rauch/Stars and Stripes
Calm in the midst of chaos is lifesaving protocol for medevac crew in southern Afghanistan
By LAURA RAUCH
Stars and Stripes
Published: August 25, 2011
FORWARD OPERATING BASE PASAB, Afghanistan — It was the worst of places, but the soldiers on the ground had few options when they marked the landing zone for the medevac helicopter. One of their buddy’s legs had been blown off by an Improvised Explosive Device near Pashmul South, and another had suffered a traumatic brain injury from the blast.
Grape rows, tree lines and mud walls surrounded the field. It was the perfect setting for an ambush.
Purple smoke billowed from the landing zone as the crew of Dustoff 59 sped toward a small band of 1st Infantry Division soldiers, waiting with their wounded. As pilot and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Marcus Chambers slowed for the landing, gunfire broke out and the all-too-familiar tat-tat-tat-tat, tat-tat-tat-tat pinged around them.
Chambers set the aircraft down and flight medic Staff Sgt. Garrick Morgenweck flung the door open to retrieve the wounded. As he stepped out, insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade from close range, striking a mud wall and narrowly missing the helicopter as it blasted through.
read more here
If you ask a Vietnam veteran why they did what they did, there are several reasons they may give to get you to stop asking them. The honest answer is "we did it for each other" and that is what they are all fighting for today in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Time had an update on this story
No Idle Boast: A Soldier's Tattoo Becomes Truth
Posted by Mark Thompson Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Tattoos are as old as war. Lots of soldiers get them, with military motifs, girlfriend's names, or various guns, skulls or dragons adorning their skin. Some get something less ornate. Private First Class Kyle Hockenberry had For those I love I will sacrifice stitched into his flesh. He had no idea how prescient he was.
A member of the 1st Infantry Division, Hockenberry's world changed June 15. He was on a foot patrol just outside Haji Ramuddin, Afghanistan, when an improvised explosive device detonated nearby. In this photograph, by Laura Rauch for the military's Stars and Stripes newspaper, flight medic Corporal Amanda Mosher is tending to Hockenberry's wounds aboard a medevac helicopter minutes after the explosion.
Kyle Hockenberry, 19, lost both legs and his left arm in the blast.
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Dog of Fallen Navy Seal won't leave casket
Dog of Fallen Navy SEAL, Officer Jon Tumilson, Refuses To Leave Casket (VIDEO)
The dog of fallen Navy SEAL Officer Jon Tumilson refused to leave his owner's casket at the officer's funeral earlier this week, Animal Planet reported.
Tumilson's cousin Lisa Pembleton captured the loyal pup, Hawkeye, resting alongside Tumilson's casket at the Rockford, Iowa ceremony.
read more here
The dog of fallen Navy SEAL Officer Jon Tumilson refused to leave his owner's casket at the officer's funeral earlier this week, Animal Planet reported.
Tumilson's cousin Lisa Pembleton captured the loyal pup, Hawkeye, resting alongside Tumilson's casket at the Rockford, Iowa ceremony.
read more here
Fort Drum soldier being treated for rabies after deployment
Fort Drum soldier being treated for rabies
Associated Press
FORT DRUM, N.Y. — Officials at Fort Drum say they are treating a soldier believed to have contracted rabies during an overseas deployment.
Officials at the northern New York Army post say the unidentified 10th Mountain Division soldier was diagnosed Friday.
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Associated Press
FORT DRUM, N.Y. — Officials at Fort Drum say they are treating a soldier believed to have contracted rabies during an overseas deployment.
Officials at the northern New York Army post say the unidentified 10th Mountain Division soldier was diagnosed Friday.
read more here
Atheists in military want their own Chaplains?
This makes no sense at all. We all know how I feel about Chaplains forgetting they are supposed to help everyone and not convert anyone, especially in the military. This article addresses how some Chaplains "view atheists as people to be converted or dismissed" as well as talking about how Chaplains have responsibility in a lot of aspects of a soldier's life. That said, how on earth would they ever come up with the requirements to have an Atheist Chaplain?
Many consider themselves spiritual with a belief in God or a "higher power" while not having any religious ties. At least they can pray to God but who or what does an atheist pray to?
Many consider themselves spiritual with a belief in God or a "higher power" while not having any religious ties. At least they can pray to God but who or what does an atheist pray to?
Military Atheists Seek Benefits Given to Religious Groups
August 24, 2011
Stars and Stripes
by Chris Carroll
The ultimate goal would be the appointment of atheists as military chaplains in each service.
WASHINGTON -- In early August, a small group of soldiers, airmen and their spouses gathered at a Panera Bread restaurant near Fort Meade, Md., to talk about the meaning of faith and how to share their convictions about life's deepest questions.
As they sipped coffee and nibbled pastries, the scene might have passed for a low-key Wednesday night Bible study except for one thing -- the members of the newly formed ATOM, or Atheists of Meade group, didn't have any Bibles. Their belief system, they say, stops at the boundaries of the natural world.
It's this rejection of supernatural belief that pushes the group off base instead of having the dedicated meeting space that religious groups get, said Army Capt. Ryan Jean, one of group's organizers. That's not fair, he said, because ATOM mostly does what religions do -- provide fellowship and a chance for ethical and moral development.
"If there's a reason to support religion in the military, it's the ethics and values that come out of it, not the supernatural claims," he said. "We also have constructive ethics and values, but we rally around humanism rather than the supernatural."
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The Burn Pits of Iraq and Afghanistan Killing Soldiers
Toxic Trash: The Burn Pits of Iraq and Afghanistan
Published on August 24 2011
Billy McKenna and Kevin Wilkins survived Iraq—and died at home. The Oxford American sent filmmaker Dave Anderson and journalist J. Malcolm Garcia to Florida to investigate this deadly threat to American soldiers.
"Smoke Signals," by J. Malcolm Garcia
Published in the Fall 2011 Issue of The Oxford American.
Strange to think about it, the black smoke.
As it turns out, the eventual killer of Billy McKenna was lurking in the photographs he snapped in Iraq. Billy wrote captions beneath some of his photographs: typical day on patrol reads one. The photo is partially obscured by the blurred image of a soldier’s upraised hand. Brown desert unfurls away from a vehicle toward an empty horizon, and a wavering sky scorched white hovers above. Off to one side: Balad Air Base and the spreading umbrella of rising dank smoke from a burn pit.
Billy told his wife, Dina, in e-mails from Iraq that the stench was killing him. The air so dirty it rained mud. He didn’t call them burn pits. She can’t recall what he called them. He didn’t mean killing him literally. Just that the overwhelming odor was god-awful and tearing up his sinuses. He didn’t wear a mask. It would not have been practical. In heat that soared above a hundred degrees, what soldier would wear one?
Dina doesn’t know when she first heard the words “burn pit.” A Veterans Affairs doctor may have said it. The doctors were telling her a lot of things when Billy was on a ventilator. All she could think was, How can he have cancer? He’s indestructible. He’s been to hell and back. He can build houses, race cars, fish, camp. He was an Eagle Scout as a kid. He doesn’t smoke cigarettes.
But Billy had been exposed to something much more harmful than cigarettes. Since 2003, defense contractors have used burn pits at a majority of U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan as a method of destroying military waste. The pits incinerate discarded human body parts, plastics, hazardous medical material, lithium batteries, tires, hydraulic fluids, and vehicles. Jet fuel keeps pits burning twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
read more here
Published on August 24 2011
Billy McKenna and Kevin Wilkins survived Iraq—and died at home. The Oxford American sent filmmaker Dave Anderson and journalist J. Malcolm Garcia to Florida to investigate this deadly threat to American soldiers.
"Smoke Signals," by J. Malcolm Garcia
Published in the Fall 2011 Issue of The Oxford American.
Strange to think about it, the black smoke.
As it turns out, the eventual killer of Billy McKenna was lurking in the photographs he snapped in Iraq. Billy wrote captions beneath some of his photographs: typical day on patrol reads one. The photo is partially obscured by the blurred image of a soldier’s upraised hand. Brown desert unfurls away from a vehicle toward an empty horizon, and a wavering sky scorched white hovers above. Off to one side: Balad Air Base and the spreading umbrella of rising dank smoke from a burn pit.
Billy told his wife, Dina, in e-mails from Iraq that the stench was killing him. The air so dirty it rained mud. He didn’t call them burn pits. She can’t recall what he called them. He didn’t mean killing him literally. Just that the overwhelming odor was god-awful and tearing up his sinuses. He didn’t wear a mask. It would not have been practical. In heat that soared above a hundred degrees, what soldier would wear one?
Dina doesn’t know when she first heard the words “burn pit.” A Veterans Affairs doctor may have said it. The doctors were telling her a lot of things when Billy was on a ventilator. All she could think was, How can he have cancer? He’s indestructible. He’s been to hell and back. He can build houses, race cars, fish, camp. He was an Eagle Scout as a kid. He doesn’t smoke cigarettes.
But Billy had been exposed to something much more harmful than cigarettes. Since 2003, defense contractors have used burn pits at a majority of U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan as a method of destroying military waste. The pits incinerate discarded human body parts, plastics, hazardous medical material, lithium batteries, tires, hydraulic fluids, and vehicles. Jet fuel keeps pits burning twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
read more here
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Army silence and censors bring agony to families of fallen by suicide
Army silence and censors bring agony
Article by: MARK BRUNSWICK , Star Tribune Updated: August 24, 2011 - 3:52 PM
The aftermath of soldier suicides can entail a frustrating search for answers and endless anguish for the families.
What frequently follows, survivors say, is a string of slights, stonewalling and misinformation that conveys a disturbing message: Their loved ones remain government property, even after their deaths.
Military authorities routinely promise that they will do all they can to help, but some families are left feeling that the military's real goal is to protect itself.
The Campbell family of Cloquet, Minn., came to that conclusion after Corinne Campbell, still grieving after the funeral of her son, Jeremy, her mind reduced to "scrambled eggs,'' started up his laptop. The Army, she discovered, had wiped its hard drive clean. Even his personal pictures from a trip to Germany were gone.
Jan Fairbanks of St. Paul spent months of frustration searching for answers about the death of her son, Jacob. Then one day, a thick stack of investigative files was left unannounced by military officials at her front door -- documents that only raised new questions.
Meanwhile, the Hervas family of Coon Rapids contends that the Army so zealously protected information about their son, Tad, a high-ranking intelligence officer who killed himself, that more than half of the documents the family asked for were edited to the point of being largely indecipherable. Even his parents' names were blacked out.
read more here
For Maj. Tad Hervas, discipline, despair and death
Article by: MARK BRUNSWICK , Star Tribune Updated: June 27, 2011 - 1:01 PM
Was punishment appropriate or excessive for a high-ranking officer who was called on the carpet?
In the fall of 2009, Maj. Tad Hervas was a 17-year military veteran on his third combat deployment, an intelligence officer with top secret security clearance who was in almost daily contact with the CIA.
And his Army career was effectively over.
Hervas, 48, from Coon Rapids, was being forced out of the Army because the National Guard had determined that he'd had an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate.
On Oct. 6, Hervas was scheduled to fly to Baghdad to begin his legal defense. The day before, he prepared four notes, hiding one of them in his roommate's pillowcase. That morning, Hervas found an isolated room, unholstered his 9-millimeter service pistol and shot himself in the head.
"This was a cold and calculated act. I spoke to nor hinted of this to anyone," Hervas wrote in the letters marked for his commanders. "Do not blame anyone for my death."
Hervas became the highest-ranking member of the Minnesota National Guard -- and one of the most senior officers in the entire Army -- to take his own life.
read more here
Article by: MARK BRUNSWICK , Star Tribune Updated: August 24, 2011 - 3:52 PM
The aftermath of soldier suicides can entail a frustrating search for answers and endless anguish for the families.
Corinne Campbell discovered the Army had wiped clean the hard drive of her son Jeremy’s laptop.
Jim Gehrz, Star Tribune
When family members asked for the document, they say the Army referred them to the National Guard. When they went to the Guard, they say they were told to talk to the Army.For the families of soldiers who kill themselves, the anguish that accompanies the initial news is often only the beginning of their ordeal.
What frequently follows, survivors say, is a string of slights, stonewalling and misinformation that conveys a disturbing message: Their loved ones remain government property, even after their deaths.
Military authorities routinely promise that they will do all they can to help, but some families are left feeling that the military's real goal is to protect itself.
The Campbell family of Cloquet, Minn., came to that conclusion after Corinne Campbell, still grieving after the funeral of her son, Jeremy, her mind reduced to "scrambled eggs,'' started up his laptop. The Army, she discovered, had wiped its hard drive clean. Even his personal pictures from a trip to Germany were gone.
Jan Fairbanks of St. Paul spent months of frustration searching for answers about the death of her son, Jacob. Then one day, a thick stack of investigative files was left unannounced by military officials at her front door -- documents that only raised new questions.
Meanwhile, the Hervas family of Coon Rapids contends that the Army so zealously protected information about their son, Tad, a high-ranking intelligence officer who killed himself, that more than half of the documents the family asked for were edited to the point of being largely indecipherable. Even his parents' names were blacked out.
read more here
For Maj. Tad Hervas, discipline, despair and death
Article by: MARK BRUNSWICK , Star Tribune Updated: June 27, 2011 - 1:01 PM
Was punishment appropriate or excessive for a high-ranking officer who was called on the carpet?
In the fall of 2009, Maj. Tad Hervas was a 17-year military veteran on his third combat deployment, an intelligence officer with top secret security clearance who was in almost daily contact with the CIA.
And his Army career was effectively over.
Hervas, 48, from Coon Rapids, was being forced out of the Army because the National Guard had determined that he'd had an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate.
On Oct. 6, Hervas was scheduled to fly to Baghdad to begin his legal defense. The day before, he prepared four notes, hiding one of them in his roommate's pillowcase. That morning, Hervas found an isolated room, unholstered his 9-millimeter service pistol and shot himself in the head.
"This was a cold and calculated act. I spoke to nor hinted of this to anyone," Hervas wrote in the letters marked for his commanders. "Do not blame anyone for my death."
Hervas became the highest-ranking member of the Minnesota National Guard -- and one of the most senior officers in the entire Army -- to take his own life.
read more here
Utah National Guard scrambling now that Iraq deployment is called off
Guard members scrambling now that Iraq deployment is called off
Published: Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011 10:59 a.m. MDT
By Steve Fidel, Deseret News
WEST JORDAN — Members of the Utah National Guard's 1-211 Attack Recon Battalion have been preparing for as long as a year to deploy to Iraq in September.
The Apache attack helicopter battalion's deployment was scrubbed at the last minute, leaving about 400 Guard members in a scramble to reconnect with their lives at home while also having a "warning order" they will instead go to Afghanistan in about 13 months.
"What am I going to do now?" was the first thing to go through Spc. Angela Christiansen's mind when members got word on Thursday the deployment had been scrubbed. "I have no idea since I was focused completely (on deploying) since June."
As unnerving as deploying to Iraq might have been, unhitching from deployment plans "is more frightening because it's more uncertain," she said. "I quit my job. I was renting an apartment. I left that. I was staying with a friend temporarily, so now I have nowhere to live."
Sgt. David Driscoll has a house he can't live in because he leased it for the time he expected to be gone. Now he's trying to find something else near where his children are going to school. Spc. William Price, an Apache crew chief, took a year off school to get ready for the deployment. He has been out of school long enough that he will soon have student loans coming due without the combat-zone-enhanced full-time military paycheck to cover those costs.
read more here
Published: Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011 10:59 a.m. MDT
By Steve Fidel, Deseret News
WEST JORDAN — Members of the Utah National Guard's 1-211 Attack Recon Battalion have been preparing for as long as a year to deploy to Iraq in September.
The Apache attack helicopter battalion's deployment was scrubbed at the last minute, leaving about 400 Guard members in a scramble to reconnect with their lives at home while also having a "warning order" they will instead go to Afghanistan in about 13 months.
"What am I going to do now?" was the first thing to go through Spc. Angela Christiansen's mind when members got word on Thursday the deployment had been scrubbed. "I have no idea since I was focused completely (on deploying) since June."
As unnerving as deploying to Iraq might have been, unhitching from deployment plans "is more frightening because it's more uncertain," she said. "I quit my job. I was renting an apartment. I left that. I was staying with a friend temporarily, so now I have nowhere to live."
Sgt. David Driscoll has a house he can't live in because he leased it for the time he expected to be gone. Now he's trying to find something else near where his children are going to school. Spc. William Price, an Apache crew chief, took a year off school to get ready for the deployment. He has been out of school long enough that he will soon have student loans coming due without the combat-zone-enhanced full-time military paycheck to cover those costs.
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Would you wait 4 years for Workman's Comp? Why should veterans?
If you get hurt on the job, you get Workman's Comp and can pay most of your bills. If you happen to work for Uncle Sam in the military, get wounded on your job, you get discharged, sent home but no money to pay your bills. Disabled veterans should not be second class citizens. Isn't that what we're talking about here?
The news has been bleak for active duty military folks with suicides going up just as the reports of 18 veterans a day commit suicide, but the truth is, they are not all counted. Once they are discharged the DOD does not track them. Until they are in the VA system, they are not counted by the VA. How many more are committing suicide without anyone counting them? How many commit suicide because they cannot live with the extra stress of being wounded serving their country then having the country deny any responsibility?
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, is directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated"
-- George Washington
The news has been bleak for active duty military folks with suicides going up just as the reports of 18 veterans a day commit suicide, but the truth is, they are not all counted. Once they are discharged the DOD does not track them. Until they are in the VA system, they are not counted by the VA. How many more are committing suicide without anyone counting them? How many commit suicide because they cannot live with the extra stress of being wounded serving their country then having the country deny any responsibility?
VCS / VUFT Lawsuit in San Francisco Chronicle
Written by Bob Egelko
Wednesday, 24 August 2011 09:01
VA appeals ruling on veterans' health care
August 24, 2011, San Francisco, California (San Francisco Chronicle) - The Obama administration is challenging a court ruling that would open the door to changes in a veterans' health care system beset by long delays and a high suicide rate.
The ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco would allow veterans' groups to go to court to seek an overhaul of the Department of Veterans Affairs' procedures and timetables to speed health care to veterans.
The appellate judges "ignored basic limits on judicial authority," Justice Department lawyers said in a new appeal to the court.
They said the ruling violated Congress' decision "to prevent the courts from second-guessing the VA's performance of these critical functions."
The administration requested a new hearing before a larger appellate panel.
The court's 2-1 ruling in May followed a 2008 trial in San Francisco that revealed a health care system plagued by delays and gaps in care, particularly for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with severe mental trauma.
The average waiting time for health benefit claims was 4.4 years, and more than 1,400 veterans who had been denied coverage died in one six-month period while their appeals were pending, the court said.
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Marines based in Okinawa forced to listen to insurance sales pitch
Report: Private firms still selling unsuitable insurance to troops
By Charley Keyes, CNN Senior National Security Producer
August 23, 2011 7:58 p.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Pentagon says junior enlisted members not protected
Officers don't enforce existing rules, report says
Troops solicited to buy policies they don't need, can't afford
Washington (CNN) -- Five years after a law to protect U.S. military personnel from salespeople selling life insurance, a new Pentagon report finds problems continue.
The Inspector General found that insurance agents used prohibited sales practices both on and off U.S. military bases to persuade personnel to buy insurance they may not need or be able to afford.
And the report also found that military personnel failed to enforce existing policies that limits solicitation of military personnel. In addition, the report said, companies used misleading marketing techniques and misused the Defense Department myPAY internal payment system.
"Although DoD (Department of Defense) has taken some corrective actions and some States have initiated actions against insurance agents and companies, junior enlisted Service members continue to purchase high-cost life insurance products considered unsuitable for most military personnel and which may threaten their financial stability," the Pentagon Inspector General wrote in a report released Tuesday.
All military personnel are automatically enrolled in a life insurance policy administered by the Veterans Administration from their first day of training or active duty.
The report found that as an example of improper actions by private insurance agents, Marines based in Okinawa were introduced to an insurance agent during a financial class taught by a Defense Department civilian and were later told by a noncommissioned officer to attend a sales solicitation event. Another Marine told Inspector General investigators he was not allowed to leave formation before agreeing to provide contact information to insurance salesmen.
red more here
By Charley Keyes, CNN Senior National Security Producer
August 23, 2011 7:58 p.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Pentagon says junior enlisted members not protected
Officers don't enforce existing rules, report says
Troops solicited to buy policies they don't need, can't afford
Washington (CNN) -- Five years after a law to protect U.S. military personnel from salespeople selling life insurance, a new Pentagon report finds problems continue.
The Inspector General found that insurance agents used prohibited sales practices both on and off U.S. military bases to persuade personnel to buy insurance they may not need or be able to afford.
And the report also found that military personnel failed to enforce existing policies that limits solicitation of military personnel. In addition, the report said, companies used misleading marketing techniques and misused the Defense Department myPAY internal payment system.
"Although DoD (Department of Defense) has taken some corrective actions and some States have initiated actions against insurance agents and companies, junior enlisted Service members continue to purchase high-cost life insurance products considered unsuitable for most military personnel and which may threaten their financial stability," the Pentagon Inspector General wrote in a report released Tuesday.
All military personnel are automatically enrolled in a life insurance policy administered by the Veterans Administration from their first day of training or active duty.
The report found that as an example of improper actions by private insurance agents, Marines based in Okinawa were introduced to an insurance agent during a financial class taught by a Defense Department civilian and were later told by a noncommissioned officer to attend a sales solicitation event. Another Marine told Inspector General investigators he was not allowed to leave formation before agreeing to provide contact information to insurance salesmen.
red more here
Justice Department to brief 9/11 families on hacking probe
Justice Department to brief 9/11 families on hacking probe
From Susan Candiotti, CNN
August 24, 2011 6:26 a.m. EDT
News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch said he had seen "no evidence" that 9/11 families' phones had been hacked.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The FBI has been probing whether 9/11 victims' phones and voice mail were hacked
The scandal has led to several arrests and resignations in Britain
New York (CNN) -- Families of victims of the 9/11 attacks are expected to meet with top Justice Department officials Wednesday to discuss whether any of their relatives' phone messages were hacked by employees of News Corp.
The FBI began investigating that claim amid a widespread scandal in Britain over the use of phone hacking by employees or associates of News Corp. papers there. The Wednesday meeting with Justice officials will update the families on the progress of the investigation, retired New York firefighter Jim Riches told CNN last month.
"We hope to find out results of the investigation and find out who was tapped, and whether they will hold any anyone accountable if it happened," said Riches, whose son died in the al Qaeda attack on New York's World Trade Center.
Norman Siegel, an attorney representing 9/11 families' organizations, said Attorney General Eric Holder has agreed to take part in the meeting.
read more here
From Susan Candiotti, CNN
August 24, 2011 6:26 a.m. EDT
News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch said he had seen "no evidence" that 9/11 families' phones had been hacked.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The FBI has been probing whether 9/11 victims' phones and voice mail were hacked
The scandal has led to several arrests and resignations in Britain
New York (CNN) -- Families of victims of the 9/11 attacks are expected to meet with top Justice Department officials Wednesday to discuss whether any of their relatives' phone messages were hacked by employees of News Corp.
The FBI began investigating that claim amid a widespread scandal in Britain over the use of phone hacking by employees or associates of News Corp. papers there. The Wednesday meeting with Justice officials will update the families on the progress of the investigation, retired New York firefighter Jim Riches told CNN last month.
"We hope to find out results of the investigation and find out who was tapped, and whether they will hold any anyone accountable if it happened," said Riches, whose son died in the al Qaeda attack on New York's World Trade Center.
Norman Siegel, an attorney representing 9/11 families' organizations, said Attorney General Eric Holder has agreed to take part in the meeting.
read more here
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