Widow of Army Ranger forced to leave Rumsfeld's book signing

"As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time." Donald Rumsfeld

Well that was the way they all seemed to think about sending troops into Iraq as the talk about Afghanistan was forgotten about even though there were still troops there, risking their lives while being ignored.

FOX news took the lead on omitting any harm being done to the troops making people believe the administration cared but like the above piece, reality was under-reported. Suicides went up and the DOD was scratching their heads to figure out why. The Army came out with a stunning study saying that redeployments increased the risk of PTSD by 50% but the administration was not about to make any changes. They continued the practice. A like study showed the need for dwell time between deployments, yet men like Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann received hardly no time home. He was do to return into combat for the 9th time. Troops were sent into Afghanistan 10 years ago in October yet this was supposed to be his 9th time?

Did any of this bother Rumsfeld? Cheney? Bush? Did the lives of the men and women sent bother any of them? All of them have books and PR agents to spin what happened but families left behind have graves to visit and heartaches to heal.

Ranger's widow expelled from Rumsfeld book signing
Two people were removed from a Donald Rumsfeld book signing Friday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, including the Yelm widow of an Army Ranger who blames the military for her husband’s suicide.

JORDAN SCHRADER; STAFF WRITER
Published: 08/28/11

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld begins to sign a copy of his book for Jorge Gonzalez while Ashley Joppa-Hagemann looks on. Gonzalez and Joppa-Hagemann were later escorted from the event Friday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. (PHOTO COURTESY OF COFFEE STRONG)

Two people were removed from a Donald Rumsfeld book signing Friday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, including the Yelm widow of an Army Ranger who blames the military for her husband’s suicide.
Security officers for the former secretary of defense escorted Ashley Joppa-Hagemann out by the arm, she said Saturday. She and Jorge Gonzalez, the executive director of Coffee Strong, a Lakewood-based anti-war group, confronted Rumsfeld as he promoted his memoir, “Known and Unknown.”
According to an account posted on Coffee Strong’s website: “Mrs. Joppa-Hagemann introduced herself by handing a copy of her husband’s funeral program to Rumsfeld, and telling him that her husband had joined the military because he believed the lies told by Rumsfeld during his tenure with the Bush administration.”
Joppa-Hagemann complained about Rumsfeld’s response Friday to her account of Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann’s multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and his death at age 25. Hagemann belonged to the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.


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They shared a moment of crisis, and the anguish that remained

9/11 IN FOCUS
They shared a moment of crisis, and the anguish that remained
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY
OLD BRIDGE, N.J.— From Monday's Globe and Mail
Published Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011

Deputy U.S. marshal Dominic Guadagnoli helps a women after she was injured in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York, Sept. 11, 2001. The Injured woman was later identified as Donna Spera. —Gulnara Smoilova/AP

It wasn’t until she collapsed outside the building that the pain took over.

Throughout the 78-storey trek to the bottom of the South Tower of the World Trade Center, Donna Spera was unaware of her surroundings, the passage of time or her own condition.

She remembers blood on the stairs, but didn’t think it was hers. She recalls crawling over an elevator smashed through the stairwell, but not how her legs became lacerated. She couldn’t figure out why a friend wrapped his shirt around her hand.

But once outside, she became aware of the scorched and melted skin on her arms and back; of her gashed knees, shattered hand and bloody scalp.

And that’s when Dominic Guadagnoli grabbed her.

The deputy marshal, who’d been working in a courthouse nearby, made a dash for the World Trade Center shortly after the planes hit.

The people he helped out of the towers came in waves of escalating injury: First the relatively unscathed; then the dust-caked, the water-soaked, the shell-shocked and slightly battered. And then Ms. Spera.

“I just scooped her up and ran. ... I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. I got you.’ ”
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No charges against Iraq war veteran with PTSD

Harlingen Police: No charges against Iraq war veteran
by Amber Dixon
Posted: 08.28.2011

A Harlingen neighborhood was shook up Saturday night after police blocked off their street and asked neighbors to stay inside their homes.

An Iraq war veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder had reportedly barricaded himself inside a home, armed with a gun.

A family member veteran Chris Huerta spoke off camera to Action 4 News.

"He's honestly a really good kid,” said the family member.

He said Huerta got into a fight with his brothers and grabbed a gun.

Police were called.
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Psalm 55 suffering of the soul

There have been many claims that what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been recorded all the way back in the Old Testament. This is one of the Psalms where you can clearly see the suffering of the soul.

Psalm 55

1 Listen to my prayer, O God,

do not ignore my plea;

2 hear me and answer me.

My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught

3 because of what my enemy is saying,

because of the threats of the wicked;

for they bring down suffering on me

and assail me in their anger.

4 My heart is in anguish within me;

the terrors of death have fallen on me.

5 Fear and trembling have beset me;

horror has overwhelmed me.

6 I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!

I would fly away and be at rest.

7 I would flee far away

and stay in the desert;[c]

8 I would hurry to my place of shelter,

far from the tempest and storm.”

9 Lord, confuse the wicked, confound their words,

for I see violence and strife in the city.

10 Day and night they prowl about on its walls;

malice and abuse are within it.

11 Destructive forces are at work in the city;

threats and lies never leave its streets.

12 If an enemy were insulting me,

I could endure it;

if a foe were rising against me,

I could hide.

13 But it is you, a man like myself,

my companion, my close friend,

14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship

at the house of God,

as we walked about

among the worshipers.

15 Let death take my enemies by surprise;

let them go down alive to the realm of the dead,

for evil finds lodging among them.

16 As for me, I call to God,

and the LORD saves me.

17 Evening, morning and noon

I cry out in distress,

and he hears my voice.

18 He rescues me unharmed

from the battle waged against me,

even though many oppose me.

19 God, who is enthroned from of old,

who does not change—

he will hear them and humble them,

because they have no fear of God.

20 My companion attacks his friends;

he violates his covenant.

21 His talk is smooth as butter,

yet war is in his heart;

his words are more soothing than oil,

yet they are drawn swords.

22 Cast your cares on the LORD

and he will sustain you;

he will never let

the righteous be shaken.

23 But you, God, will bring down the wicked

into the pit of decay;

the bloodthirsty and deceitful

will not live out half their days.

But as for me, I trust in you.

Veteran sought in 4 deaths found dead in Pennsylvania

Veteran sought in 4 deaths found dead in Pennsylvania

By Associated Press
Sunday, August 28, 2011

PHILADELPHIA — Police say a soldier being sought in the deaths of four people in Pennsylvania and Virginia has been found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Pennsylvania State Police spokesman David Lynch says the body of 37-year-old Leonard John Egland of Fort Lee, Va., was found shortly after 3:30 p.m. Sunday in Warwick Township. That’s where he had been sought since early morning.
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Soldier is at large in Philadelphia area, sought by police for 4 deaths in Va.
Published: Sunday, August 28, 2011, 2:22 PM
Updated: Sunday, August 28, 2011, 4:00 PM
By The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — A soldier who recently returned from war service fired at officers in suburban Philadelphia as he was sought in the Virginia deaths of his ex-wife, her boyfriend and the boyfriend's young son, authorities said. The soldier's former mother-in-law was also killed, and he remains at large.

Residents of Warwick Township were asked to stay in their homes and lock doors and cars as police hunted for Leonard John Egland, 37, of Fort Lee, Va., who evaded authorities as Hurricane Irene lashed the area.

"I have no idea whether he's acting on impulse or whether this storm played a part in his thinking," said David Heckler, district attorney in Bucks County, Pa.

Heckler didn't know when the Virginia deaths occurred but said Egland's former mother-in-law, 66-year-old Barbara Reuhl of Buckingham, Pa., was believed to have been killed Saturday night.
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Denver police arrest man after Fort Carson soldier killed

Man, 22, arrested in July killing of soldier near motel
The Denver Post

Denver police have arrested a man suspected of shooting and killing a Fort Carson soldier near his motel in July.

At 8:55 p.m. on Thursday, Ricky Scott, 22, was arrested in the 1600 block of West 37th Avenue, on suspicion of first-degree murder, according to a news release from the Denver Police Department.
Details about the arrests and possible motivation behind the shooting were not released.
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Fort Carson soldier shot and killed

7,500 Guard troops ready to begin relief operations

Guard troops ready to begin relief operations
By Lolita C. Baldor and Randy Pennell - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Aug 28, 2011
JONESTOWN, Pa. — The National Guard is poised to help states hit by Hurricane Irene.

Maj. Gen. David Harris, director of operations for the Arlington, Va.-based National Guard Bureau, told The Associated Press on Saturday that at least 7,500 Guard troops either have been pre-positioned in key regions or have been told to prepare to deploy to provide help to states affected by the storm this weekend.

“Typically when a hurricane like this goes through, it’s several hours after it passes through before they get a chance to get out and survey the damage,” Harris said. “If there are things that are beyond the state’s capability, that’s when we’ll get those requests.”

The hurricane, with an enormous 500-mile wingspan, knocked out power and piers in North Carolina and hammered Virginia with strong winds as it crept up the coast Saturday. It stirred up 7-foot waves, and forecasters warned of storm-surge danger on the coasts of Virginia and Delaware, along the Jersey Shore and in New York Harbor and Long Island Sound.

In northern Virginia, at the National Guard Bureau’s coordination center, military officials tracked the storm on an array of screens three stories below ground, and they organized massive Army and Air Guard assistance squads, called packages, that will be ready to head to the coastal states over the next day or two.
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Oklahoma soldiers deal with danger fighting Taliban

Oklahoma soldiers deal with danger fighting Taliban
About 2,000 members of the Oklahoma National Guard are deployed to Afghanistan.

BY BRYAN DEAN bdean@opubco.com
Published: August 28, 2011
Oklahoma National Guard soldiers are “outside the wire” in Afghanistan, fighting up close and personal with the Taliban and waiting for the day they can come home.

The 2,000 soldiers from the 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team have lost seven of their comrades in the short time they've been deployed, a fact that is always on the minds of those left behind.

Rely on each other
Spc. Anthony Fernandez, of Edmond, a scout who does reconnaissance and gathers intelligence for his unit, said soldiers must rely on each other with danger a constant reality.

“Everyone has each other's back,” he said. “We become like a family, and we look out for each other and trust one another. I pray a lot and know that God is watching over me.”

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Walter Reed Army Medical Center closes its doors in final ceremony

Walter Reed Army Medical Center closes its doors in final ceremony
By Laura Koran, CNN
August 28, 2011

The flag was lowered for the final time Saturday as Walter Reed Army Medical Center closed it doors.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Military hospital lowers its flag
Walter Reed completes merger with center in Maryland

Washington (CNN) -- Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington closed its doors Saturday, completing the military hospital's merger with the Bethesda National Naval Medical Center. The event was marked with a flag-lowering ceremony, which followed the transfer of Walter Reed's 18 remaining patients to the combined medical center's Bethesda, Maryland, campus.

The official closing was conducted a day earlier than originally planned in order to avoid the worst of Hurricane Irene, but the ceremony was still marked by grey skies, heavy rain and strong winds. This somber weather caused Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, to remark in his closing speech, "clearly the heavens are struggling with the finality of this too."

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Marine Corps sets new guidelines for anthrax vaccine

Marine Corps sets new guidelines for anthrax vaccine
Published: August 27, 2011

The Marine Corps has issued new policy clarifying rules for the controversial anthrax vaccine, incorporating numerous changes introduced since 2007.

According to the Marine Corps Times, the major changes are:

• The vaccine is mandatory for many Marines, but not everyone.

• The vaccination course includes five injections administered over 18 months, not six as earlier rules stipulated.

• The injections are intramuscular. They are no longer given under the skin.
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Blind veteran to be evicted from Minnesota Veterans Home

Whistleblower: Blind and in need of special care, veteran may be evicted from VA Home
Updated: August 28, 2011 - 12:19 AM
Vietnam vet Gerald Bilderback is in jeopardy of eviction from the Veterans Home because of unpaid bills. He, however, doesn't control his money.

Fifteen years ago, Gerald Bilderback moved into the state-run Minnesota Veterans Home in Minneapolis. It's the kind of facility that offers the skilled nursing care needed by the blind 73-year-old Vietnam veteran who's unable to live independently due to a traumatic brain injury, according to court documents.

Bilderback is now facing eviction over unpaid bills, even though he has no control over his money. An administrative law judge recommended earlier this summer that the state Department of Veterans Affairs discharge Bilderback because of a dispute that started when his brother-in-law -- who oversees Bilderback's pensions and veterans benefits -- refused to pay $1,084 in medical expenses two years ago.

A Wisconsin court has taken steps to remove the brother-in-law, Robert Adams of Eau Claire, as Bilderback's conservator. But that follows two years of wrangling with Adams by county social workers and courts in two states, the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs and other agencies, culminating in threats to send Bilderback packing.
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Fort Hood soldier dies during training

Texas Today: Fort Hood soldier dies during training
Posted On: Friday, Aug. 26 2011

A 37-year-old Fort Hood soldier died Friday morning during physical training.

The soldier was identified as Dennis Lamonte Lee. Justice of the Peace Garland Potvin pronounced Lee dead at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at 8:15 a.m. Friday.

Potvin ordered an autopsy, which will be performed by military medical examiners.
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Parade canceled after soldier arrested-support was not canceled

UPDATE Sept 4th, 2011
Soldier says weekend arrest came during 'a big hurt'
Written by
ERIC WEDDLE
Eric Braman, the local soldier arrested over the weekend on the eve of his homecoming parade, said that he was sorry for firing a gun and hurting another man.

"I want to say a formal apology to the community and to the individual that was hurt," Braman said Monday afternoon. "I don't even know who he is. The police wouldn't tell me. I want to apologize to him and to his family."

Braman, 24, returned to Lafayette this month after 11 months of physical therapy at Walter Reed Medical Hospital in Washington, D.C.
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Arrest doesn't impact Braman fish fry
Parade scheduled for Sunday is now canceled

Updated: Saturday, 27 Aug 2011, 11:54 PM EDT
Published : Saturday, 27 Aug 2011, 11:54 PM EDT

Kristin Maiorano
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - News of the arrest of a Lafayette soldier injured in Afghanistan didn't seem to deter members of the community from taking part in a fish fry fundraiser for Eric Braman and his family. Organizers said hundreds came out Saturday evening to show their support.

"Our focus all along has been, Eric deserves a welcome home for what he sacrificed in Afghanistan," said Navy Club Commander Tim Hilton.

Hilton said that focus wasn't blurred by news that Army Specialist Eric Braman was arrested for a felony charge of criminal recklessness Saturday morning.

"That's not our judgement," he said. "Eric's going through a tough time, and we really think it's the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and that happens to a lot of soldiers coming back."

Hilton said Braman will be getting help for those issues, but in the meantime, friends, family and other community members were hoping to help him and his family the best they can.
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Soldier arrested after shooting incident on day before his homecoming parade: parade canceled (update)
9:49 PM, Aug. 27, 2011

Written by
ERIC WEDDLE

A parade scheduled for downtown Lafayette Sunday to honor an injured U.S. soldier was canceled today in wake of the soldier's arrest early today.

According to Lafayette police, Eric S. Braman, 24, is accused of shooting a gun and injuring a man on Veterans Memorial Parkway South during an argument.

Police said they were called to the 2400 block of Veterans Memorial Parkway South at 3:28 a.m. today after reports of two shots being fired during a verbal altercation. Police said witnesses said Braman fired both shots.

Andrew Studer, 31, of Lafayette was injured after one of the shots was fired, police said. He had a wound on the left side of his chest, near the shoulder. Police said the wound was minor and that Studer refused medical treatment at the scene.
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also
Parade Will Welcome Home Injured Soldier

Virginia Vietnam Veteran wins $1 million lottery prize

Christiansburg vet wins $1 million lottery prize
By Lerone Graham


A Christiansburg Vietnam veteran is the first $1 million winner in the Virginia Lottery's Right on the Money game.

"I knew immediately, instantly that it was a $1 million winner," Thomas Wurtz told Virginia lottery officials.
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Online Love Triangle, Deception End in Murder

Online Love Triangle, Deception End in Murder
By JIM AVILA GEOFF MARTZ and JOANNE NAPOLITANO
Aug. 27, 2011
The Internet is known as a breeding ground for illicit affairs between people often hiding behind fake names and handles. But most such virtual relationships aren't dangerous as this -- when "Talhotblond" and "MarineSniper" struck up a relationship online, it ended in murder.

MarineSniper was 46-year old Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two. In May, 2005, posing as a young, handsome Iraq-bound Marine, he entered a teen chat room the popular game site "Pogo."

When 18-year-old Talhotblond started instant-messaging him, he decided to pretend he was 18 too.

"I kept thinking, well, we're never going to meet. ... I'll just play the game with her," he said.

Before long, the flirtation became a romance.
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VA awards new contract for debunked PTSD drug

VA awards new contract for debunked PTSD drug
BY BOB BREWIN 08/25/2011

This is the fourteenth story in an ongoing series.

The Veterans Affairs Department continues to issue contracts to purchase an anti-psychotic drug to treat post-traumatic stress disorder despite research showing the drug, risperidone, is no more effective than a placebo.

Nextgov reported Aug. 22 that VA spent $717 million over the past decade to purchase risperidone, the generic name for Risperdal, a second-generation anti-psychotic drug originally developed by the Janssen Pharmaceuticals division of Johnson & Johnson to treat severe mental conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

VA doctors prescribe the drug to treat PTSD, but a study by department researchers published Aug. 2 in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded, "treatment with risperidone compared with placebo did not reduce PTSD symptoms."

Despite these findings, on Aug. 11, VA awarded a contract to Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. for more than 200,000 bottles of risperidone containing more than 20 million pills in multiple dosages. The announcement of the contract to the Morgantown, W.V., generic drug manufacturer did not provide a dollar value for the contract.
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WWII Montford Pointers occupy a quiet corner of history

Overdue salute for a black Marine

By David Perlmutt
dperlmutt@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011

Seeking recognition

"Nearly 70 years after they integrated the Marines on Aug. 26, 1942, the Montford Pointers occupy a quiet corner of history. Their recognition has never come close to the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed black World War II pilots."

Raymond Worsley was 18 in 1943, a student at Johnson C. Smith University, when the military came knocking.

The recruiter told Worsley he was bound for the Army. But Worsley had other plans: "No sir, I want to be a Marine."

That's what he became. But he had to overcome more than just the rigors of boot camp. Worsley's black, and until 1942, the Marine Corps had been all white.

He was sent to segregated Camp Montford Point near Camp Lejeune to train with thousands of other blacks who broke the military's last color barrier.

This weekend, the retired Charlotte Presbyterian minister and dozens of surviving Montford Pointers are getting their due, starting with breakfast Friday morning in Washington, D.C., with Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos as part of a weekend of events.

"I always wanted to be a Marine, even as a boy" in Rocky Mount," said Worsley, 86. "I'd seen them in the movies and I loved their music.

"Those were among my proudest days."



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Defense attorney suggests possible PTSD defense in killings

Defense attorney suggests possible PTSD defense in killings
By Kirk Mitchell
The Denver Post

A defense attorney for an accused killer who admitted slashing and shooting two people to death in a remote home in Douglas County today raised the possibility that he was suffering from a psychological condition and under great stress.

Public defender Kathleen McGuire indicated through questioning of Sgt. Jason Weaver that she may be planning a defense to establish that her client Josiah Sher, 27, was taking medications for post traumatic stress disorder.

She asked Weaver whether it was true that Sher, one of four suspects in the double homicide of Amara Wells, 39, and Bob Rafferty, 49, had served several tours in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq between 2005 and 2009.

The sergeant confirmed that and also said that Sher told him he had been institutionalized for severe PTSD, was still taking medications for the condition and had called a suicide hotline on Feb. 4, less than three weeks before the Feb. 23 murders.
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Man claims PTSD caused crime spree involving gun

Police: Man claims PTSD caused crime spree involving gun
Posted on26 August 2011.
By Kelci Parks

A Pahrump man was arrested in the early morning hours yesterday after allegedly going on an alcohol and drug-induced crime spree. In less than two hours John David Radell, 43, was reported to have pulled a gun on three people in three separate locations.

Deputies were first dispatched to Paddy’s Pub on Pahrump Valley Boulevard just before midnight on Wednesday evening. Deputies discovered that Radell had allegedly pulled a gun and put it to the first victim’s head during some sort of verbal dispute outside of the bar. No shots were fired and Radell fled the scene before police could respond.

“It was pretty random. He just kept picking different locations,” said Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo.

The severity of the incidents increased a little each time. Less than 15 minutes after the first incident, deputies were dispatched to Terrible’s Country Store gas station on Highway 160 across from the entrance to Calvada Blvd. Witnesses there told police that Radell walked into the gas station and engaged in a verbal argument with a patron at the store. Radell then allegedly pulled out a gun and put it to the head of the second victim. Again, no shots were fired, but Radell allegedly pistol-whipped the patron and again fled the scene before deputies showed up.

The sheriff says that the suspect was not on foot, but driving from location to location.

Just before 2 a.m. Thursday, deputies responded to a suicide threat at 2240 S. Winery Rd., the suspect’s residence. The press release states that Radell had pointed the gun at his wife and then fired a shot into the wall.

Radell told police that his actions were an attempt to draw attention to his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that he claims resulted from his service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Radell’s claims to have served in the U.S. Army have yet to be confirmed, but the suspect told police that he served tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq. He also told them he was on medication for his PTSD.
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Veteran Says Deputies Shot Him in the Back

Veteran Says Deputies Shot Him in the Back
By MATT REYNOLDS

SAN DIEGO (CN) - A Gulf war veteran and his wife say a sheriff's deputy shot the veteran in the back, leaving him paraplegic, and that the Sheriff's Department then lied about the shooting, claiming the veteran had shot first.

Michael and Kimberly Foster sued San Diego County and its Sheriff William Gore in Federal Court.

Kimberly Foster says she called 911 from her Alpine home on Oct. 19, 2010, "out of concern for her husband's safety." She says she felt that her husband, an Army medic who had served in Bosnia and the Persian Gulf, "was having a PTSD episode."

Alpine is a distant suburb in the hills east of San Diego.

She says San Diego County Sheriff deputies and a SWAT team responded to her call.

"At approximately 1:00 pm, plaintiff Michael Foster walked outside into his back yard in broad daylight. With his back turned to the officers and without provocation, plaintiff Michael Foster was shot multiple times in the back by the SWAT team members," the complaint states.

Kimberly adds that "at the time he was shot," her husband "posed no immediate threat of harm to any of the officers."

She says that when she heard the shots she thought her husband had been killed.

"Immediately after the shooting, San Diego Sheriff's Lieutenant Dennis Brugos made a public statement indicating that the Sheriff SWAT officers shot Mr. Foster because Mr. Foster first shot at them one or two times," the complaint states. "Lieutenant Brugos' statement was entirely false as subsequent investigation has proven that Mr. Foster never discharged his firearm in the presence of the sheriff's officers."

The Fosters say the County of San Diego stuck by the story, even though Brugos' statement was "indisputably false."
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