Glendale police release names of couple found dead at Luke base
by Eddi Trevizo, Lisa Halverstadt and John Genovese on Sep. 20, 2011, under Arizona Republic News
Glendale police have released the names of a Goodyear couple found dead in a post office on Luke Air Force Base.
Gaudioso Gamilla, 62, and Vilma Gamilla, 61, were found with multiple stab wounds about 7 p.m. Sunday, Glendale police said.
It could be a murder-suicide, although Sgt. Brent Coombs, a Glendale police spokesman, said the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office would make that determination.
Officials said the bodies were found in an area where military mail is processed, a spot not accessible to the general public.
Over the weekend, a staff sergeant from Luke Air Force Base contacted Goodyear police to report that his father, a Department of Defense civilian employee at the base post office, was missing. Goodyear officials contacted the base, and military investigators found a vehicle parked outside the post office after business hours, prompting a search inside.
read more here
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Suicide Rate Among Troops Alarms Pentagon for 59 seconds?
Stunned,,,simply stunned. I read the headline and thought, great, there has to be an amazing video connected to it, but wow, I was totally wrong. It wasn't even a minute long. How alarmed can they be?
Jonathan Woodson, Assistant Secretary of Defense Health Affairs, said that suicide was a "permanent solution to a temporary problem" ignoring the evidence that with all the years of "research" into military suicide and combat PTSD, the results seem to be the DOD has been trying to get around a permanent problem with a temporary solution.
You can't cure PTSD but you can heal it. What the DOD has come up with on fighting PTSD is like having the best bullets in the world without anything to put them into.
Jonathan Woodson, Assistant Secretary of Defense Health Affairs, said that suicide was a "permanent solution to a temporary problem" ignoring the evidence that with all the years of "research" into military suicide and combat PTSD, the results seem to be the DOD has been trying to get around a permanent problem with a temporary solution.
You can't cure PTSD but you can heal it. What the DOD has come up with on fighting PTSD is like having the best bullets in the world without anything to put them into.
Suicide Rate Among Troops Alarms Pentagon (Video)
September 21, 2011
By Beth Ford Roth
Pentagon officials have grown alarmed at the growing suicide rate among servicemembers as Suicide Prevention Month grows to a close. According to a Pentagon Report:
1,100 servicemen and women committed suicide in 2005 to 2009 — one suicide every day and a half. The Army’s suicide rate doubled in that time.
Navy veteran Ann Longboy has joined the chorus of military voices trying to bring awareness to suicide prevention. Longboy shared her story on the Defense Centers for Excellence website about how her own suicidal thoughts in 1987 as a young Sailor were stopped from being put into action by her Navy leadership. She writes of how grateful she was to her leadership for intervening, because the consequences of suicide hit home for her in 2004 when her younger brother took his own life:
read more here
Medal Awarded for 101st Airborne Vietnam-Era Covert Op
Medal Awarded for Vietnam-Era Covert Op
September 22, 2011
Knight Ridder
by Howard Altman
It was September 1968, and Richard Crawford was on a secret mission in a country where U.S. troops weren't supposed to be.
Crawford, now a Lakeland resident, was inside one of several helicopters headed to Laos on a mission to rescue a reconnaissance team that had come under heavy fire. Over the course of several hours, the helicopters were shredded by fire. Two crashed and several soldiers were injured, but the reconnaissance team was saved.
From a written eyewitness account by Roger F. Lockshier, Specialist 5/E-5Black Angels Co., 101st. Airborne Division:
September 22, 2011
Knight Ridder
by Howard Altman
It was September 1968, and Richard Crawford was on a secret mission in a country where U.S. troops weren't supposed to be.
Crawford, now a Lakeland resident, was inside one of several helicopters headed to Laos on a mission to rescue a reconnaissance team that had come under heavy fire. Over the course of several hours, the helicopters were shredded by fire. Two crashed and several soldiers were injured, but the reconnaissance team was saved.
From a written eyewitness account by Roger F. Lockshier, Specialist 5/E-5Black Angels Co., 101st. Airborne Division:
"We rolled in for the pick-up and immediately started receiving tremendous amounts of automatic weapons fire. I could hear and feel our helicopter getting hit with bullets as we laid down our machine-gun, 40mm, & rocket fire. Scott and I stepped out onto the skids and proceeded to lay down a non stop blanket of M-60 fire."read more here
It was another harrowing day in the life of the secret Military Assistance Command Vietnam Studies and Observations Group, a highly classified U.S. special forces unit that conducted covert operations before and during the Vietnam War. It was created more than two decades before U.S. Special Operations Command.
For more than four decades after making their way out of that harrowing firefight, the men, led by a now 68-year-old Crawford, have been fighting another battle.
One for recognition. And honor.
Military families say war takes toll on them too
I don't know what it is like to help my husband pack for deployment. I don't know what it is like to get up every morning and know suddenly I have to do everything plus worry about him while he is in combat or what it is like to worry about a car pulling up in front of the house with strangers preparing to give me the news he isn't coming home.
When I was growing up I was surrounded by veterans. My uncles were WWII veterans and my Dad was a Korean vet. My Mom and her sisters knew what it was like to go through those years. I was born well after they all came home. Even though it was clear they were changed by what they experienced, they seemed to be doing fine.
When Vietnam veterans, like my husband came home, wives like me had no clue how much they would change in just a year. My husband came home in 1971 but we didn't meet until 1982, so I had no idea what he as like before Vietnam. Honestly before I met him, I was like most people in the country, ignoring what was going on. When he enlisted at the age of 17, I was only 10. I was in what was called Jr. High, now called Middle School when he came home at the age of 19. Up until the age of 23 when we met, I didn't want to know what war was like.
All that said, I understand why young wives and husbands want to avoid learning about war just as much as they want to avoid learning about PTSD. I get it. I understand how someone could want to push all of it out of their head. What I don't get is the idea of ignoring it will make it all go away.
If everything available to today's veterans and families was available to us when we had nothing to learn from, our lives would have been much different. Our parents wouldn't talk about it and the Internet was still a pipe dream. It was very hard to find other families connected to Vietnam but really easy to find families connected to the protestors.
You don't know how lucky you are to grow up in the technology age when information and support is available with Google search. Lucky living with PTSD? Absolutely because if you have knowledge you have the tools you need to help them heal. As with everything else, if you never learn how to use the tools, you can't fix anything. Take the time to learn what PTSD is and then you'll be amazed with the simple fact you saw then through their darkest days arriving years later with a strong bond and a strong marriage. Not learning what PTSD is a guaranteed divorce and quite possibly standing by a grave because they committed suicide. When they feel as if you are all they have and you turn against them out of ignorance, they feel they have lost all hope. Fight this battle by their side and then you can look back 30 years later knowing the battle was well worth it.
When I was growing up I was surrounded by veterans. My uncles were WWII veterans and my Dad was a Korean vet. My Mom and her sisters knew what it was like to go through those years. I was born well after they all came home. Even though it was clear they were changed by what they experienced, they seemed to be doing fine.
When Vietnam veterans, like my husband came home, wives like me had no clue how much they would change in just a year. My husband came home in 1971 but we didn't meet until 1982, so I had no idea what he as like before Vietnam. Honestly before I met him, I was like most people in the country, ignoring what was going on. When he enlisted at the age of 17, I was only 10. I was in what was called Jr. High, now called Middle School when he came home at the age of 19. Up until the age of 23 when we met, I didn't want to know what war was like.
All that said, I understand why young wives and husbands want to avoid learning about war just as much as they want to avoid learning about PTSD. I get it. I understand how someone could want to push all of it out of their head. What I don't get is the idea of ignoring it will make it all go away.
If everything available to today's veterans and families was available to us when we had nothing to learn from, our lives would have been much different. Our parents wouldn't talk about it and the Internet was still a pipe dream. It was very hard to find other families connected to Vietnam but really easy to find families connected to the protestors.
You don't know how lucky you are to grow up in the technology age when information and support is available with Google search. Lucky living with PTSD? Absolutely because if you have knowledge you have the tools you need to help them heal. As with everything else, if you never learn how to use the tools, you can't fix anything. Take the time to learn what PTSD is and then you'll be amazed with the simple fact you saw then through their darkest days arriving years later with a strong bond and a strong marriage. Not learning what PTSD is a guaranteed divorce and quite possibly standing by a grave because they committed suicide. When they feel as if you are all they have and you turn against them out of ignorance, they feel they have lost all hope. Fight this battle by their side and then you can look back 30 years later knowing the battle was well worth it.
As deployment looms, military families say war takes its toll on them, too
Posted: Thu, Sep 22, 2011
By Juliana Keeping
AnnArbor.com Health and Environment Reporter
National Guard solider Drew Cummings smiles as he poses for a photograph with his wife Amy and their 4-year-old daughter Ella in their Milan apartment.Leaving his wife, Amy, and young daughter, Ella, was the hardest thing Drew Cummings had experienced when he left for Iraq in 2008.
Melanie Maxwell I AnnArbor.com
“She’s standing there, watching me go, and I could hear her sobbing, saying ‘Please don’t go,’ and Ella was crying. It was awful,” he said.
It turned out the year-long separation during war would be the easy part.
The family's biggest battle hit when Drew came home.
Drew and Amy Cummings’ marriage hit rock bottom in the months following his return in late 2008 from his first deployment with the Michigan Army National Guard.
Now, Drew is set to deploy for a second time with the Michigan Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 125th Infantry Unit. Its call sign is the Viking Battalion.
Drew, 25, will leave Amy, 27, and Ella, 4, for one year.
He extended his contract with the National Guard in order to deploy to Afghanistan again. Cummings will make the trip with fellow soldiers Neil Gikas, 26 and his superior, and Adam Betz, profiled on AnnArbor.com on 9/11. All three will share their stories with AnnArbor.com in the series "Vikings War" until the deployment ends.
Cummings and Betz, 30, know deployment can take a toll on families. Betz and his wife divorced following the battalion's 2008 deployment. Cummings came home full of rage and unable to sleep. For months, Cummings refused to acknowledge anything was wrong.
“It’s got to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Amy said, tearing up. “The hardest situation I’ve ever had to deal with. Afterwards is the worst.”
Drew was suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome, an anxiety disorder that can cause a wide range of symptoms, including nightmares, insomnia, depression, frightening thoughts, emotional numbness and other issues.
With help from doctors and counselors, they got through it.
read more here
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
9 missing WWII troops’ remains identified
9 missing WWII troops’ remains identified
By Will Lester - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Sep 21, 2011 9:15:46 EDT
WASHINGTON — Nine servicemen who died when their bomber was shot down over the Pacific during World War II have been identified, and their remains will be buried in a single casket at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.
The Pentagon says the men took off in their B-17E Flying Fortress named “Naughty But Nice” in June 1943 from an airfield in Papua New Guinea. The plane was damaged by anti-aircraft fire and then shot down by Japanese fighter aircraft.
Army Air Forces 1st Lt. William J. Sarsfield of Philadelphia; 2nd Lt. Charles E. Trimingham of Salinas, Calif.; Tech. Sgt. Robert L. Christopherson of Blue Earth, Minn.; and Tech. Sgt. Leonard A. Gionet of Shirley, Mass., will be buried as a group in a single casket Wednesday at Arlington.
read more here
I interviewed Tech. Sgt. Gionet's nephew Sunday at the Vietnam War Museum during the POW-MIA event.
Guns account for 70% of the military suicides
Guns and Military Connected Suicides
An Army Psychiatrist feels that gun control is an issue. A Fort Bragg Brigade Commander disagrees.
By Kelly Twedell
In June this past year, ELSPETH CAMERON RITCHIE, one of the Army's top psychiatrists posted a story in Time Magazine about the reality of the issue at hand involving suicide and guns in the Army.
Guns account for 70% of the military suicides.
According to Ritchie, in theater, these deaths are typically linked to government-issued weapons. Back at home, they are usually by the service member's personal weapon. Do you know anyone in the military who does not own at least one firearm?
After his involvement in hundreds of cases, including investigations at Fort Bragg he attributes both alcohol and easy access to weapons as a major theme.
"This is especially true in the impulsive suicides, those precipitated by an acute break-up or getting in trouble in work", said Ritchie.
Having been around Army communities for 14 years, other root causes that have surfaced are financial issues, morale when dealing with operational tempo (OPTEMPO) tied to deployments, and family matters.
read more here
An Army Psychiatrist feels that gun control is an issue. A Fort Bragg Brigade Commander disagrees.
By Kelly Twedell
In June this past year, ELSPETH CAMERON RITCHIE, one of the Army's top psychiatrists posted a story in Time Magazine about the reality of the issue at hand involving suicide and guns in the Army.
Guns account for 70% of the military suicides.
According to Ritchie, in theater, these deaths are typically linked to government-issued weapons. Back at home, they are usually by the service member's personal weapon. Do you know anyone in the military who does not own at least one firearm?
After his involvement in hundreds of cases, including investigations at Fort Bragg he attributes both alcohol and easy access to weapons as a major theme.
"This is especially true in the impulsive suicides, those precipitated by an acute break-up or getting in trouble in work", said Ritchie.
Having been around Army communities for 14 years, other root causes that have surfaced are financial issues, morale when dealing with operational tempo (OPTEMPO) tied to deployments, and family matters.
read more here
Suicide's silent victims speak out
Suicide's silent victims speak out
September 19, 2011
By Patricia Deal,
Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center Public Affairs
FORT HOOD, Texas, Sept. 19, 2011 -- It just wasn't something you talked about -- ever."
"To this day, my daughter won't talk about her brother."
"I thought I was OK all these years, but just out of the blue it hit me and I couldn't stop crying."
These are cries of pain and anguish from members of the Army family personally affected by the trauma of suicide.
Some lost a parent, a sibling, a child, a co-worker, a friend. Some are survivors from their own attempts.
They are Soldiers, civilians, spouses. They come from all areas and some even work in the behavioral health field. No profession or rank is exempt from the dark reaches of suicide.
All agreed to tell their stories in hopes their experiences can help other "silent victims," those impacted by the trauma of suicide, and help themselves heal a bit in the process.
Nancy Gist's experience has made her an advocate of sorts for speaking out against the stigma associated with suicide.
Her youngest brother shot himself in the head exactly one month after his 19th birthday.
read more here
September 19, 2011
By Patricia Deal,
Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center Public Affairs
FORT HOOD, Texas, Sept. 19, 2011 -- It just wasn't something you talked about -- ever."
"To this day, my daughter won't talk about her brother."
"I thought I was OK all these years, but just out of the blue it hit me and I couldn't stop crying."
These are cries of pain and anguish from members of the Army family personally affected by the trauma of suicide.
Some lost a parent, a sibling, a child, a co-worker, a friend. Some are survivors from their own attempts.
They are Soldiers, civilians, spouses. They come from all areas and some even work in the behavioral health field. No profession or rank is exempt from the dark reaches of suicide.
All agreed to tell their stories in hopes their experiences can help other "silent victims," those impacted by the trauma of suicide, and help themselves heal a bit in the process.
Nancy Gist's experience has made her an advocate of sorts for speaking out against the stigma associated with suicide.
Her youngest brother shot himself in the head exactly one month after his 19th birthday.
read more here
The Private Worry of Marines in Afghanistan
The Private Worry of Marines in Afghanistan
September 21, 2011
Associated Press|by Christopher Torchia
FORWARD OPERATING BASE JACKSON, Afghanistan -- It is a conversation, the military surgeon says, that every U.S. Marine has with his corpsman, the buddy who is first to treat him if he is wounded by an insurgent's bomb.
The Marine says, " 'If I lose my manhood, then I don't want to live through it,' " according to Navy Lt. Richard Whitehead, surgeon for 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, which is fighting in one of the most treacherous combat areas of Afghanistan.
"They ask us not to save them if their 'junk' gets blown off," said Whitehead, using a slang term for genitals. "Usually, we laugh. We joke with them about it. At the same time, you know that you're going to treat them anyway."
This is a world of fear, resolve and dark humor that is mostly hidden from accounts of the human cost of the war in Afghanistan. American troops who patrol on foot in bomb-laced areas know they might lose a leg, or two, if they step in the wrong place. But for young men in their prime, most unmarried and without children, the prospect of losing their sexual organs seems even worse.
Whitehead said: "It's one of the areas we can't put a tourniquet on."
read more here
September 21, 2011
Associated Press|by Christopher Torchia
FORWARD OPERATING BASE JACKSON, Afghanistan -- It is a conversation, the military surgeon says, that every U.S. Marine has with his corpsman, the buddy who is first to treat him if he is wounded by an insurgent's bomb.
The Marine says, " 'If I lose my manhood, then I don't want to live through it,' " according to Navy Lt. Richard Whitehead, surgeon for 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, which is fighting in one of the most treacherous combat areas of Afghanistan.
"They ask us not to save them if their 'junk' gets blown off," said Whitehead, using a slang term for genitals. "Usually, we laugh. We joke with them about it. At the same time, you know that you're going to treat them anyway."
This is a world of fear, resolve and dark humor that is mostly hidden from accounts of the human cost of the war in Afghanistan. American troops who patrol on foot in bomb-laced areas know they might lose a leg, or two, if they step in the wrong place. But for young men in their prime, most unmarried and without children, the prospect of losing their sexual organs seems even worse.
Whitehead said: "It's one of the areas we can't put a tourniquet on."
read more here
Amputations Up Sharply for Troops in Afghan War
Amputations Up Sharply for Troops in Afghan War
September 21, 2011
Associated Press|by Pauline Jelinek
WASHINGTON -- The counterinsurgency tactic that is sending U.S. troops out on foot patrols among the Afghan people, rather than riding in armored vehicles, has contributed to a dramatic increase in arm and leg amputations, genital injuries and the loss of multiple limbs following blast injuries.
These devastating injuries affect unit morale. They also give rise to talk on the battlefield that some troops had made secret pacts not to help each other survive if they were so severely injured, a new report said Tuesday.
The number of U.S. troops who had amputations rose sharply from 86 in 2009, to 187 in 2010 and 147 so far this year, military officials said Tuesday, releasing the report on catastrophic wounds.
Of those, the number of troops who lost two or three limbs rose from 23 in 2009 to 72 last year to 77 so far this year. Only a dozen or so of all amputations came from Iraq and the rest were from Afghanistan, where militants are pressing the insurgency with roadside bombs, handmade land mines and other explosives.
read more here
There are two Iraq veterans with amputations in this video. They are not just numbers, but young men with so much hope for their future it is clear to see. They don't want you to feel sorry for them but they need your help to make sure their future is as bright as possible. When you hear them, notice that no matter what happened to them, they are hopeful.
Paul "Russ" MarekHomes for Our Troops already built a home for Russ. Russ went to visit Winter, the dolphin with the missing tail, and found hope knowing a dolphin without a tail could learn to swim, he could learn to walk missing a leg and adapt with the missing arm.
Branch: Army
Rank: Staff Sergeant
Home: Melbourne, FL
SSG Paul Russell Marek was serving with the 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq when his tank was destroyed by an IED. Three of his crew members perished in the explosion and Russ lost his right leg and right arm, his right ear and left thumb and suffered brain injury and severe burns over 20 percent of his body. That happend on September 16, 2005 as he rode in a tank near Baghdad.
Luis Puertas
Branch: Army
Rank: Specialist
Home: Orlando, FL
Army SPC Luis Puertas was left a double amputee after an EFP explosion in Baghdad, Iraq, on September 20, 2006. SPC Puertas was the driver of the lead HUMVEE on a daily patrol near Sadr City when an unseen EFP, planted at the base of a light pole launched into the vehicle, amputating both of his legs on impact. Leaving him trapped beneath the 400 pound up-armored door of the HUMVEE. Miraculously, his team was able to extricate him from the wreckage, and prepare him for medevac from the scene.
Homes for Our Troops is almost done building a home for Luis. He's full of hope too. After all, he met his girlfriend Amber after he came home from Iraq and they fell in love.
I met these incredible veterans when the Orlando Nam Knights held an event to raise money to help build the house.
Helping Veterans In Central PA Find A Job
Helping Veterans In Central PA Find A Job
The Lancaster Vets Center Holds Job Fair
Nava Ghalili
Multi-media Journalist
5:29 p.m. EDT, September 20, 2011
EAST LAMPETER TOWNSHIP, LANCASTER COUNTY— Many veterans deal with a lot more than Post-traumatic Stress Disorder when they return home, so many are without jobs.
"I did not have a job waiting for me, actually I was on unemployment for a while," said Army and National Guard veteran, Michael Perez.
Sign up for breaking news text message alerts from FOX43!
Resource officers from a number of vet supporting agencies brought their employment tips to a job fair in Lancaster County Tuesday.
The job fair at Lancaster Vets Center in East Lampeter Township welcomed veterans for the first time since their doors opened this year.
read more here
The Lancaster Vets Center Holds Job Fair
Nava Ghalili
Multi-media Journalist
5:29 p.m. EDT, September 20, 2011
EAST LAMPETER TOWNSHIP, LANCASTER COUNTY— Many veterans deal with a lot more than Post-traumatic Stress Disorder when they return home, so many are without jobs.
"I did not have a job waiting for me, actually I was on unemployment for a while," said Army and National Guard veteran, Michael Perez.
Sign up for breaking news text message alerts from FOX43!
Resource officers from a number of vet supporting agencies brought their employment tips to a job fair in Lancaster County Tuesday.
The job fair at Lancaster Vets Center in East Lampeter Township welcomed veterans for the first time since their doors opened this year.
read more here
Gone With The Flesh, heavy metal band takes on PTSD
Band of airmen take on PTSD (VIDEO, SLIDESHOW)
Gone with the Flesh competes tonight to open at Fuel concert in Pensacola
September 20, 2011 4:33 PM
NAVARRE — A local band’s military background has influenced the hardcore heavy metal music they write and play.
From deployed days to weapon references, the military experience flows through many of the songs written and performed by Gone with the Flesh.
Bassist Jenn Goode said one subject close to the hearts of band members is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
“We all have family members or friends that have been affected by PTSD which is why we are so strongly emotional about getting the word out there,” Goode said. “Our music is what helps us deal with all of our personal issues; it is definitely a great stress relief.”
Goode, a medic in the Gulf War, said she came back with a minor case of PTSD after working a mass casualty event and treating victims of an improvised explosive device.
read more here
Gone with the Flesh competes tonight to open at Fuel concert in Pensacola
September 20, 2011 4:33 PM
NAVARRE — A local band’s military background has influenced the hardcore heavy metal music they write and play.
From deployed days to weapon references, the military experience flows through many of the songs written and performed by Gone with the Flesh.
Bassist Jenn Goode said one subject close to the hearts of band members is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
“We all have family members or friends that have been affected by PTSD which is why we are so strongly emotional about getting the word out there,” Goode said. “Our music is what helps us deal with all of our personal issues; it is definitely a great stress relief.”
Goode, a medic in the Gulf War, said she came back with a minor case of PTSD after working a mass casualty event and treating victims of an improvised explosive device.
read more here
PTSD on Trial:Rep. Daniel P. Gordon explains his recent arrests
UPDATE to this story sent by a reader, Corporal Roy
Records show R.I. Rep. Gordon didn’t serve in Gulf, as claimed
01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, September 24, 2011
By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer
State Rep. Daniel P. Gordon holds a news conference Wednesday in Portsmouth announcing he will not resign.
The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires
State Rep. Daniel P. Gordon, who blamed alcohol and legal problems on combat stress sustained in the 1991 Gulf War, never served in the Gulf, according to his military records. Gordon also claims that he suffered a shrapnel injury to his leg; however, his records do not list a Purple Heart, ordinarily awarded for injury sustained in combat.
“There appears to be no listing of combat tour of duty in the Middle East,” said Maj. Stewart T. Upton, head of media operations in the public affairs office for the Marine Corps at the Pentagon. “I don’t see a Kuwait Service Medal or any combat action or Purple Heart,” Upton said. Excepting any inaccuracies, “obviously we’re saying the information in front of us doesn’t have these tours of duty that he’s talking about.”
Gordon, R-Portsmouth, did not return calls or e-mails on Friday.
read more here
Records show R.I. Rep. Gordon didn’t serve in Gulf, as claimed
01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, September 24, 2011
By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer
State Rep. Daniel P. Gordon holds a news conference Wednesday in Portsmouth announcing he will not resign.
The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires
State Rep. Daniel P. Gordon, who blamed alcohol and legal problems on combat stress sustained in the 1991 Gulf War, never served in the Gulf, according to his military records. Gordon also claims that he suffered a shrapnel injury to his leg; however, his records do not list a Purple Heart, ordinarily awarded for injury sustained in combat.
“There appears to be no listing of combat tour of duty in the Middle East,” said Maj. Stewart T. Upton, head of media operations in the public affairs office for the Marine Corps at the Pentagon. “I don’t see a Kuwait Service Medal or any combat action or Purple Heart,” Upton said. Excepting any inaccuracies, “obviously we’re saying the information in front of us doesn’t have these tours of duty that he’s talking about.”
Gordon, R-Portsmouth, did not return calls or e-mails on Friday.
read more here
This is why there should be Veterans' Courts all over the country. Having PTSD as a veteran is not an excuse for committing crimes but it is a reason to provide true justice for the victims as well as the veteran. He should not get off the hook for "free" but if he does have PTSD, he should get the help he needs.
Rep. Daniel P. Gordon explains his recent arrests, incarceration and why he refuses to step down from office.
By Sandy McGee
Republican Rep. Daniel P. Gordon says "self-medicating with alcohol" to treat post-traumatic stress from wartime service led to his arrests in Massachusetts.
Gordon sat down with Portsmouth Patch on Tuesday to talk about his recent arrest, incarceration and why he refuses to step down from office.
Gordon attributes his past criminal record in Massachusetts to "self-medicating" with alcohol.
"When I returned home from overseas in the Marine Corps, I suffered a lot of issues that returning combat veterans do, namely post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as a physical ailment, and self-medicated it with alcohol.
"Each and everyone of those instances on my Massachusetts' record was directly or indirectly involved with alcohol. I've since received treatment for that...and continue to receive counseling for that."
Gordon, 42, of 35 Alan Ave., Portsmouth, was arrested on Friday, Sept. 16, as a fugitive from justice on a Massachusetts warrant for failure to appear on an eluding charge and other motor vehicle violations, according to the State Police report.
Gordon, a Marine Corps veteran, served in many countries, including Iraq in 1991. He also served in Kuwait, the Philippines, Korea, Thailand, Australia, Japan and Guam.
read more here
Marines lip sink video from Afghanistan
Being a Digital Media student I can tell you that this took a great deal of time to do but, wow, worth it! It shows that our Marines are not just young, (my daughter's age) brave, (takes a lot of courage to be filmed) talented (when they perform like this) but have great imaginations too. One other thing that you may not have thought about but it also shows that no matter what is going on where they are, they are still like everyone else their age. Now imagine being in their age group having nothing more to worry about than college, getting a job and a girlfriend and partying with your friends while they have to worry about being so far away from home with bullets and bombs to worry about on top of what you do. Just amazing!
Uploaded by atarin18 on Sep 14, 2011
This is a video we made in Afghanistan before the Hold it against me video.
I do not own the music tracks it belongs to the below:
Justin Bieber Baby
Far east movement Like a G6
Black eyed peas dirty bit
kesha tik tok
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Vietnam 101st Airborne veteran still serving in Afghanistan
Face of Defense: Vietnam Vet Still in the Fight
By Army Spc. Jennifer Andersson
159th Combat Aviation Brigade
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Sept. 20, 2011 – Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 Roy Brown proved his mettle as a combat pilot in Vietnam. Now, 41 years later, he’s proving his stamina and love of the military with service in Afghanistan.
Brown, who also served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, began his career with the 101st Airborne Division, and is serving with the Screaming Eagles again as his career draws to a close. As the 159th Combat Aviation Brigade’s liaison officer to the Air Force’s 702nd Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, which supports Regional Command – South here, Brown is in no hurry to retire.
“Call it patriotism or call it my admiration of the Army’s principles -- its organizational objectives and goals, its performance over the decades in areas not only of military success, but what I think of as social equity,” he said. “But your life’s works need to have a higher purpose.”
Explaining how his career began, the Oklahoma native said it was a $5 bill that transformed his boyhood dream into reality in 1971.
read more here
By Army Spc. Jennifer Andersson
159th Combat Aviation Brigade
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Sept. 20, 2011 – Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 Roy Brown proved his mettle as a combat pilot in Vietnam. Now, 41 years later, he’s proving his stamina and love of the military with service in Afghanistan.
Brown, who also served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, began his career with the 101st Airborne Division, and is serving with the Screaming Eagles again as his career draws to a close. As the 159th Combat Aviation Brigade’s liaison officer to the Air Force’s 702nd Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, which supports Regional Command – South here, Brown is in no hurry to retire.
“Call it patriotism or call it my admiration of the Army’s principles -- its organizational objectives and goals, its performance over the decades in areas not only of military success, but what I think of as social equity,” he said. “But your life’s works need to have a higher purpose.”
Explaining how his career began, the Oklahoma native said it was a $5 bill that transformed his boyhood dream into reality in 1971.
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