Veteran of SJPD Kills Wife, Self: Police
Motive for murder-suicide remained a mystery Monday.
By Lori Preuitt
Monday, Nov 28, 2011
It's a double tragedy for the San Jose police department. A veteran officer of the force took his own life over the holiday weekend and according to the Gilroy police, he took his wife's life as well.
Gilroy police are handling the murder-suicide case that touches the community of Gilroy and the San Jose Police Department.
The couple was found dead inside their Gilroy home Sunday night. Police said family members called police when they could not get a hold of them.
Inside, officers found the bodies of Christopher and Lynn Shimek. They said Christopher Shimek, first killed his wife and then killed himself with a gun. Police did not disclose how Lynn Shimek, 43, was killed.
Christopher Shimek was a San Jose Police sergeant and had worked in the department since 1995. The Gilroy police chief called the San Jose police chief late Sunday night to give him the news. Department spokesman Jason Dwyer said Sgt. Shimek showed no red flags or signs that he was having any kind of trouble. Dwyer said many officers knew or worked for Shimek and were shocked to hear what he had done. He said staff was being offered counseling.
read more here
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Fellow veteran donates wheelchair
Fellow veteran donates wheelchair
By Mike Gunning
Correspondent
Published November 29, 2011
GALVESTON — Al Perdew didn’t have much to feel thankful for on Thanksgiving Day. Two days earlier, he’d discovered someone had broken into his truck and stolen his wheelchair. But Christmas already is here for the Marine Corps veteran.
“I just can’t thank him enough for this,” Perdew said after hearing that another veteran was donating a wheelchair that had belonged to a recently deceased friend. “It really helps restore my faith in people.”
Perdew left his home early Tuesday morning only to discover someone had broken into his Chevy truck and removed his wheelchair, along with other items.
Galveston police have no leads.
read more here
By Mike Gunning
Correspondent
Published November 29, 2011
GALVESTON — Al Perdew didn’t have much to feel thankful for on Thanksgiving Day. Two days earlier, he’d discovered someone had broken into his truck and stolen his wheelchair. But Christmas already is here for the Marine Corps veteran.
“I just can’t thank him enough for this,” Perdew said after hearing that another veteran was donating a wheelchair that had belonged to a recently deceased friend. “It really helps restore my faith in people.”
Perdew left his home early Tuesday morning only to discover someone had broken into his Chevy truck and removed his wheelchair, along with other items.
Galveston police have no leads.
read more here
Vietnam vet prays for thief who stole valuable wheelchair
by Tiffany Craig
Posted on November 28, 2011
GALVESTON—A Vietnam veteran was the victim of a car thief but they stole more than money and electronics.
“I think once they got in there, they realized they had a Cadillac in the back,” says Al Perdew. “So, they took it.”
Al Perdew’s modified wheelchair, which is worth more than $1,700, was snatched as well. He needs it to get around after having his leg partially amputated.
“Maybe they do have a family member that needs a wheelchair,” Perdew said. “They got a nice one.”
Perdew said he got home from rehab last Monday and left all the items in his truck because he was tired. He slowly walked inside using his new cane.
read more here
Murder, suicide hits close to home
Murder, suicide hits close to home
Contributor: Alicia Coates
Fresno County is morning the lose of a Fowler high Alumni.
21 year old Ruby Grant was killed in a murder suicide this Sunday in Columbus, Georgia.
She moved there and joined the army after graduating high school.
Police say her husband shot her in the head and then himself.
read more here
Contributor: Alicia Coates
"Columbus police said Monday that both were in the military."
Fresno County is morning the lose of a Fowler high Alumni.
21 year old Ruby Grant was killed in a murder suicide this Sunday in Columbus, Georgia.
She moved there and joined the army after graduating high school.
Police say her husband shot her in the head and then himself.
read more here
Maryland woman opens her home to returning military families
Maryland woman opens her home to returning military families
By Brian Shane, USA TODAY
BERLIN, Md. – Tina Pearson says she made a friend through her church who was a single mother and Iraq veteran. The woman's toddler son, she told Pearson, had forgotten his mom when she returned from deployment, and getting to know her again took months.
That heart-rending tale inspired Pearson to transform her three-bedroom home just outside Berlin, Md., into a haven she calls "Home of the Brave," where servicemembers and their families can visit to spend quality time together.
Using her own money, she had the first floor renovated for wheelchair accessibility and built herself separate living quarters on the side of her home, so visitors could have privacy. "What if she and her son could have gone somewhere like this?" said Pearson, 40. "It's quiet; it's peaceful. Just have a few days to talk and play trucks or draw. Would that have sped it up a little bit?"
read more here
By Brian Shane, USA TODAY
BERLIN, Md. – Tina Pearson says she made a friend through her church who was a single mother and Iraq veteran. The woman's toddler son, she told Pearson, had forgotten his mom when she returned from deployment, and getting to know her again took months.
That heart-rending tale inspired Pearson to transform her three-bedroom home just outside Berlin, Md., into a haven she calls "Home of the Brave," where servicemembers and their families can visit to spend quality time together.
Using her own money, she had the first floor renovated for wheelchair accessibility and built herself separate living quarters on the side of her home, so visitors could have privacy. "What if she and her son could have gone somewhere like this?" said Pearson, 40. "It's quiet; it's peaceful. Just have a few days to talk and play trucks or draw. Would that have sped it up a little bit?"
read more here
Medal of Honor Hero Dakota Meyer fights contractor over Pakistan contract
Dakota Meyer was a hero in combat and it looks like he is still fighting for his brothers. He is being retaliated against because he didn't want Pakistan to end up with scopes with all that is going on over there.
MoH Recipient Meyer Sues Contractor
November 29, 2011
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan
A former Marine awarded the Medal of Honor for repeatedly racing into a firefight to try and rescue fellow Marines is suing defense giant BAE Systems, claiming the company ruined his chances for a job in the defense industry by claiming he was unstable and a problem drinker.
Former Sgt. Dakota Meyer filed the lawsuit Monday, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Meyer, who worked for BAE Systems earlier this year, claims in the court documents that BAE retaliated against him when he objected the company’s decision to sell high-powered sniper scopes to Pakistan. He also says his supervisor at BAE ended his chance at getting a job with another defense contractor by alleging Meyer had alcohol and psychological problems, the paper reports.
Meyer was hired by BAE in March. Not long after that he sent an email to his supervisor objecting to company plans to sell the scopes to the Pakistan military.
"We are taking the best gear, the best technology on the market to date and giving it to guys known to stab us in the back," Meyer told Bobby McCreight in the email, according to the Journal.
"These are the same people killing our guys."
read more here
TBI continues to trouble the military
TBI Continues to Trouble the Military
By Grace Hood and Jim Hill
An NPR News investigation, in partnership with ProPublica, has found that military leaders are refusing to carry out a testing program as Congress ordered. Military's Brain-Testing Program A Debacle is the latest in the NPR/ProPublica series entitled "Brain Wars: How the Military is Failing its Wounded."
This issue isn't just contained to Washington, as investigations and reports from Fort Carson have shed light on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and it's deleterious effects here in Colorado.
One soldier, Shawn Lynch, had to fight for his diagnosis of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. Grace Hood and Micheal de Yoanna found a tale of frustration in their investigation:
In reflecting on his experience, Staff Sergeant Lynch said he feels like the system never gave him the benefit of the doubt until his final appeal. But that's not how the Army sees it. When asked about Lynch's long and winding case, Col. Terrio at Fort Carson said: "That's exactly what we were working for is to make sure that if there was this chance that he could have possibly of sustained a traumatic brain injury that that would get documented for him."
In October, Colorado Public News, reported that the Military Lags on Promising Treatment for Brain-injured Soldiers. Another Colorado veteran, Margaux Vair, suffered from TBI and has found relief through oxygen treatments.
read more here
By Grace Hood and Jim Hill
In the wake of the 2007 Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal, then President George W. Bush promised the “best possible care” to wounded soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Years later, the military is still struggling to treat and diagnose the most common war wound: Traumatic Brain Injury.The solider readiness center at Fort Carson, CO.Grace Hood / KUNC
An NPR News investigation, in partnership with ProPublica, has found that military leaders are refusing to carry out a testing program as Congress ordered. Military's Brain-Testing Program A Debacle is the latest in the NPR/ProPublica series entitled "Brain Wars: How the Military is Failing its Wounded."
This issue isn't just contained to Washington, as investigations and reports from Fort Carson have shed light on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and it's deleterious effects here in Colorado.
One soldier, Shawn Lynch, had to fight for his diagnosis of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. Grace Hood and Micheal de Yoanna found a tale of frustration in their investigation:
In reflecting on his experience, Staff Sergeant Lynch said he feels like the system never gave him the benefit of the doubt until his final appeal. But that's not how the Army sees it. When asked about Lynch's long and winding case, Col. Terrio at Fort Carson said: "That's exactly what we were working for is to make sure that if there was this chance that he could have possibly of sustained a traumatic brain injury that that would get documented for him."
In October, Colorado Public News, reported that the Military Lags on Promising Treatment for Brain-injured Soldiers. Another Colorado veteran, Margaux Vair, suffered from TBI and has found relief through oxygen treatments.
read more here
Silver Spring family throws hero’s welcome for young Marine
Silver Spring family throws hero’s welcome for young Marine
22-year-old returns home for a visit after seven-month tour in Afghanistan
by Jeremy Arias, Staff Writer
For one Silver Spring family, the holidays came early this year as Lance Cpl. Grant Romano Gates returned home from a seven-month tour of duty in southern Afghanistan with the U.S. Marine Corps.
“He’s my sloppy kid, it’s so obvious that he’s here; his things are all over the place,” said a smiling Donna Romano, Gates’ mother, as she watched her son make himself a plate of food in her living room Sunday afternoon. “But I don’t care.”
Gates, 22, left home almost a year ago to begin training at Camp Pendleton Marine Base near San Diego. Within months of arriving in California, Gates’ unit — 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment — was deployed to Afghanistan, Gates said. A machine-gunner in the infantry regiment, Gates spent most of his time in the Sangin Valley of the Helmand Province, a long sliver of land on Afghanistan’s southern border with Pakistan, where clashes between the Taliban and U.S. or NATO forces still are common.
“People ask me, ‘Why would you ever want to do this?’” he said Sunday, reflecting on his time overseas. “It’s what I wanted to do when I first joined, what I’ve always wanted to do. We did a lot of good out there; we took a lot of casualties, but I know overall that we did a good job out there.”
read more here
22-year-old returns home for a visit after seven-month tour in Afghanistan
by Jeremy Arias, Staff Writer
Jeremy Arias/The Gazette Lance Cpl. Grant Romano Gates (left) and his mother, Donna Romano (right), celebrated Gates' return from a seven-month tour of duty in Afghanistan last week with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sunday in Silver Spring.
For one Silver Spring family, the holidays came early this year as Lance Cpl. Grant Romano Gates returned home from a seven-month tour of duty in southern Afghanistan with the U.S. Marine Corps.
“He’s my sloppy kid, it’s so obvious that he’s here; his things are all over the place,” said a smiling Donna Romano, Gates’ mother, as she watched her son make himself a plate of food in her living room Sunday afternoon. “But I don’t care.”
Gates, 22, left home almost a year ago to begin training at Camp Pendleton Marine Base near San Diego. Within months of arriving in California, Gates’ unit — 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment — was deployed to Afghanistan, Gates said. A machine-gunner in the infantry regiment, Gates spent most of his time in the Sangin Valley of the Helmand Province, a long sliver of land on Afghanistan’s southern border with Pakistan, where clashes between the Taliban and U.S. or NATO forces still are common.
“People ask me, ‘Why would you ever want to do this?’” he said Sunday, reflecting on his time overseas. “It’s what I wanted to do when I first joined, what I’ve always wanted to do. We did a lot of good out there; we took a lot of casualties, but I know overall that we did a good job out there.”
read more here
For many returning women vets, fight not yet over
For many returning women vets, fight not yet over
By HOWARD ALTMAN
The Tampa Tribune
Published: November 29, 2011
Last month, Josefina Reyes went to work for Tampa Bay Crossroads, a rehabilitation and counseling center that came into being in 1977, the year she was born.
DAVE KRAUT/STAFF
For Reyes, who served three years with the Army, leaving as a corporal in 1999, this is familiar territory.
Until recently, she, too, was homeless, unable to translate her military experience as a truck driver and vehicle fueler into the civilian world.
Now, instead of being on the receiving end of counseling, Reyes helps guide women out of the downward spiral.
There's no shortage of need.
There are about 300 homeless women veterans in Hillsborough County, according to Sara Romeo, chief executive officer of Tampa Bay Crossroads.
read more here
By HOWARD ALTMAN
The Tampa Tribune
Published: November 29, 2011
Last month, Josefina Reyes went to work for Tampa Bay Crossroads, a rehabilitation and counseling center that came into being in 1977, the year she was born.
DAVE KRAUT/STAFF
Josefina Reyes was a homeless veteran until she found help and a new career with Tampa Bay Crossroads. Now she counsels women with more stress than she had.Reyes serves as an intake counselor for women veterans, most of them homeless or headed that way, and helps assess their problems and begin to find solutions.
For Reyes, who served three years with the Army, leaving as a corporal in 1999, this is familiar territory.
Until recently, she, too, was homeless, unable to translate her military experience as a truck driver and vehicle fueler into the civilian world.
Now, instead of being on the receiving end of counseling, Reyes helps guide women out of the downward spiral.
There's no shortage of need.
There are about 300 homeless women veterans in Hillsborough County, according to Sara Romeo, chief executive officer of Tampa Bay Crossroads.
read more here
Colleges Face Challenges With Influx of Military Veterans
UPDATE
For Veterans' Day, I asked students at Valencia College what professors could do to help them enter into the next part of their lives after combat. Here's what they had to say.
Colleges Face Challenges With Influx of Military Veterans
By Sandra G. Boodman
NOV 29, 2011
This story was produced in collaboration with
When Brian Hawthorne enrolled at George Washington University as a 23-year-old junior after two tours in Iraq, the former Army medic was unprepared for the adjustment.
"I felt like I was on another planet," he said of his first semester in 2008. Hawthorne recalled feeling whipsawed by the abrupt transition of "going from an environment where people around you are dying every day and trying to kill you" to a campus where he was surrounded by people who didn't know anyone in the military.
Academics provided no refuge. "I was very worried because I couldn't concentrate," said Hawthorne, who had graduated near the top of his Westchester County, N.Y., high school class. "I would read one page and forget what I'd just read." In danger of flunking out, he sought help on campus and was referred to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the District, where doctors quickly diagnosed a mild traumatic brain injury caused by his proximity to bomb blasts.
Hawthorne's experience is emblematic of the challenges — social, academic, psychological and medical — facing the rapidly growing population of veterans who are flocking to colleges around the country, and the health demands placed on the schools they are attending.
Propelled by the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which took effect in 2009, 2 million veterans, many of whom served in Iraq and Afghanistan, are eligible for generous benefits that can amount to a full scholarship. At George Mason University, Virginia's largest public school with more than 32,000 students, for example, the number of veterans has almost doubled, from 840 in 2009 to 1,575 last spring.
also
Vets on Campus Face Unique Challenges
November 29, 2011
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS -- Army veteran Ben Miller remembers the isolation he felt when he enrolled at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in the fall of 2009.
"I would show up on campus, talk to absolutely no one and go home," said Miller, 27, who did three tours in Iraq as a counterintelligence specialist. "I didn't feel like I really belonged."
With wars in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down and enhancements to the GI Bill, colleges and universities are expecting a surge in veteran enrollment unseen since World War II.
But some academics and veterans' advocates are warning that many colleges are unprepared to deal with the unique needs of former service members. Many veterans face a difficult transition to civilian life, ranging from readjustment issues to recovery from physical and mental injuries.
And they say without special attention, many will fail to graduate.
"If colleges are not prepared to help transition Soldiers from combat you do run the risk of losing an entire generation," said Tom Tarantino of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "The GI Bill isn't a thank you for your service. What it really is is a readjustment benefit. It is giving them the opportunity to do something that is constructive for their mind and their body, that gives them a mission and allows them to move forward in life. It's a backstop so you're not walking right off the plane from combat in to the civilian world. It was designed to be a soft landing."
read more here
For Veterans' Day, I asked students at Valencia College what professors could do to help them enter into the next part of their lives after combat. Here's what they had to say.
Colleges Face Challenges With Influx of Military Veterans
By Sandra G. Boodman
NOV 29, 2011
This story was produced in collaboration with
When Brian Hawthorne enrolled at George Washington University as a 23-year-old junior after two tours in Iraq, the former Army medic was unprepared for the adjustment.
"I felt like I was on another planet," he said of his first semester in 2008. Hawthorne recalled feeling whipsawed by the abrupt transition of "going from an environment where people around you are dying every day and trying to kill you" to a campus where he was surrounded by people who didn't know anyone in the military.
Academics provided no refuge. "I was very worried because I couldn't concentrate," said Hawthorne, who had graduated near the top of his Westchester County, N.Y., high school class. "I would read one page and forget what I'd just read." In danger of flunking out, he sought help on campus and was referred to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the District, where doctors quickly diagnosed a mild traumatic brain injury caused by his proximity to bomb blasts.
Hawthorne's experience is emblematic of the challenges — social, academic, psychological and medical — facing the rapidly growing population of veterans who are flocking to colleges around the country, and the health demands placed on the schools they are attending.
Propelled by the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which took effect in 2009, 2 million veterans, many of whom served in Iraq and Afghanistan, are eligible for generous benefits that can amount to a full scholarship. At George Mason University, Virginia's largest public school with more than 32,000 students, for example, the number of veterans has almost doubled, from 840 in 2009 to 1,575 last spring.
also
Vets on Campus Face Unique Challenges
November 29, 2011
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS -- Army veteran Ben Miller remembers the isolation he felt when he enrolled at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in the fall of 2009.
"I would show up on campus, talk to absolutely no one and go home," said Miller, 27, who did three tours in Iraq as a counterintelligence specialist. "I didn't feel like I really belonged."
With wars in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down and enhancements to the GI Bill, colleges and universities are expecting a surge in veteran enrollment unseen since World War II.
But some academics and veterans' advocates are warning that many colleges are unprepared to deal with the unique needs of former service members. Many veterans face a difficult transition to civilian life, ranging from readjustment issues to recovery from physical and mental injuries.
And they say without special attention, many will fail to graduate.
"If colleges are not prepared to help transition Soldiers from combat you do run the risk of losing an entire generation," said Tom Tarantino of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "The GI Bill isn't a thank you for your service. What it really is is a readjustment benefit. It is giving them the opportunity to do something that is constructive for their mind and their body, that gives them a mission and allows them to move forward in life. It's a backstop so you're not walking right off the plane from combat in to the civilian world. It was designed to be a soft landing."
read more here
A life of service may be honored by a city
Many combat veterans returned home from war ready to do even more for the sake of others. Many went to work as police officers and firefighters. Some went to work for the cities and towns they lived in. When they were no longer able to do those jobs due to the service they already provided the nation in war, they ended up with a loss of income as well as a loss of ability to continue the "mission" of serving others. This is an idea that should be support across the nation. This is about taking care of the men and women that always took care of others.
Lynn council set to tackle disabled vets pay
Originally Published on Tuesday, November 15, 2011
By Chris Stevens
The Daily Item
LYNN - The City Council is expected to discuss a proposal that calls for paying retired city employees - who are also veterans - an extra benefit if they retired with a disability.
Lynn resident Lorraine Bourgeois hopes that if the proposal passes it will bring an end to a decade-old battle to get veterans the money she believes they deserve.
"It is too late for my father, Norman Bourgeois, a retired firefighter or my uncle ... they died," she said. "So the best way to honor (Norman Bourgeois) is to finish this struggle because he initially started this 10 years ago."
Norman Bourgeois, according to his daughter, pushed the city to adopt Chapter 157 of the Acts of 2005, which would allow a community to retroactively calculate veterans benefits into pensions for retired state or municipal employees who ended their careers on disability.
Bourgeois took up her father's fight four years ago and will ask the council's subcommittee on Veterans, Youth and Elderly tonight to approve the act. It has already been approved by the city's Retirement Board.
Retirement Board Administrator Gary Brenner said the board voted 3-1 with City Councilor elect G. Buzzy Barton, Claire Cavanagh and Richard Biagotti voting in favor, John Pace voting against and Chairman Michael Marks not voting. Brenner said it would cost the city $269,000 to pay the retired veterans retroactively.
read more here
Monday, November 28, 2011
Fort Bliss: 2 soldiers killed in Monday shootings
UPDATE
Two Fort Bliss Soldiers Die in Domestic Dispute
by: Julie Fisher 2 hours ago
November 29, 2011
Two Fort Bliss soldiers are dead after separate shootings in a domestic dispute. El Paso Police say Fort Bliss Soldier James Steadman shot two people, then was killed by a third woman at a seprate location.
Steadman reportedly shot Lykisha Gooding, killing her. Before shooting her, he wounded Kelvin Gooding who answered the front door.
read more here
Two Fort Bliss Soldiers Die in Domestic Dispute
by: Julie Fisher 2 hours ago
November 29, 2011
Two Fort Bliss soldiers are dead after separate shootings in a domestic dispute. El Paso Police say Fort Bliss Soldier James Steadman shot two people, then was killed by a third woman at a seprate location.
Steadman reportedly shot Lykisha Gooding, killing her. Before shooting her, he wounded Kelvin Gooding who answered the front door.
read more here
Monday, Nov. 28, 2011
Fort Bliss: 2 soldiers killed in Monday shootings
Police believe shootings are connected
El Paso Police Departmnent, Fort Bliss
EL PASO, Texas —
Two soldiers who Fort Bliss officials said were involved in Monday's shootings died from gunshot wounds. Police investigators believe both shootings, the first in Far East El Paso and a second in the northeast, are connected.
Around 6:42 a.m. on Monday, police found an unidentified woman, 39, dead inside an east El Paso home in a gated community on the 3700 block of Coco Palm Drive near Montana Avenue.
Police spokesman Darrel Petry told KFOX14 the woman died from a gunshot wound. A man at the scene was taken to a hospital for a gunshot injury. Petry said the extent of his injury is unknown at this time.
About two hours later, police officers responded to an aggravated family fight at an apartment complex on the 8900 block of Kenneth Drive around 8:34 a.m.
read more here
NATO trucks in limbo after Pakistan retaliation
NATO trucks in limbo after Pakistan retaliation
By Riaz Khan and Sebastian Abbot - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Nov 27, 2011 8:49:56 EST
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Hundreds of trucks carrying supplies to U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan backed up at Pakistani border crossings Sunday, leaving them vulnerable to militant attack a day after Islamabad closed the frontier in retaliation for coalition airstrikes that allegedly killed 24 Pakistani troops.
As Pakistan army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani attended the funerals of the victims, including a major, the U.S. sought to minimize the fallout from the crisis, which plunged Washington’s already troubled relationship with Islamabad to an all-time low.
read more here
Afghan officials: Fire from Pakistan led to attack
The account challenges Islamabad's claims that the attacks were unprovoked
updated 11/27/2011 1:15:45 PM ET
Print Font:
ISLAMABAD — Afghan troops and coalition forces came under fire from the direction of two Pakistan army border posts, prompting them to call in NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, Afghan officials said Sunday. The account challenges Islamabad's claims that the attacks, which have plunged U.S.-Pakistan ties to new lows, were unprovoked.
It also pointed to a possible explanation for the incident Saturday on the Pakistan side of the border. NATO officials have complained that insurgents fire from across the poorly defined frontier, often from positions close to Pakistani soldiers, who have been accused of tolerating or supporting them.
read more here
By Riaz Khan and Sebastian Abbot - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Nov 27, 2011 8:49:56 EST
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Hundreds of trucks carrying supplies to U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan backed up at Pakistani border crossings Sunday, leaving them vulnerable to militant attack a day after Islamabad closed the frontier in retaliation for coalition airstrikes that allegedly killed 24 Pakistani troops.
As Pakistan army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani attended the funerals of the victims, including a major, the U.S. sought to minimize the fallout from the crisis, which plunged Washington’s already troubled relationship with Islamabad to an all-time low.
read more here
Afghan officials: Fire from Pakistan led to attack
The account challenges Islamabad's claims that the attacks were unprovoked
updated 11/27/2011 1:15:45 PM ET
Print Font:
ISLAMABAD — Afghan troops and coalition forces came under fire from the direction of two Pakistan army border posts, prompting them to call in NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, Afghan officials said Sunday. The account challenges Islamabad's claims that the attacks, which have plunged U.S.-Pakistan ties to new lows, were unprovoked.
It also pointed to a possible explanation for the incident Saturday on the Pakistan side of the border. NATO officials have complained that insurgents fire from across the poorly defined frontier, often from positions close to Pakistani soldiers, who have been accused of tolerating or supporting them.
read more here
Target Shoppers Step Over Walter Vance As He Collapses, Dies
That warm fuzzy feeling people used to have Christmas shopping for someone else has been replaced by greed. Imagine Christmas morning giving a gift to someone knowing you walked over a dying man to buy it!
Black Friday: Target Shoppers Step Over Walter Vance As He Collapses, Dies
The Huffington Post Tara Kelly
First Posted: 11/27/11
A Black Friday shopper who collapsed while shopping at a Target store in West Virginia went almost unnoticed as customers continued to hunt for bargain deals.
Walter Vance, the 61-year-old pharmacist, who reportedly suffered from a prior heart condition, later died in hospital, reports MSNBC.
Witnesses say some shoppers ignored and even walked over the man's body as they continued to shop, reports The Daily News.
Friends and co-workers saddened to learn of his death, expressed outrage over the way he was treated by shoppers.
"Where is the good Samaritan side of people?" Vance's co-worker Sue Compton told WSAZ-TV.
"How could you not notice someone was in trouble? I just don't understand if people didn't help what their reason was, other than greed because of a sale."
read more here
Think you know what women do in the military? Think again.
Think you know what women do in the military? Think again.
Armed Sources
Blogging military and veterans news with Lindsay Wise
Meet Katariina Fagering: a Marine veteran, warrior poet, artist and mom openly coping with post traumatic stress.
I interviewed Fagering last week for an article about Women’s Inpatient Specialty Environment of Recovery (WISER), an acute psychiatric in-patient program at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Houston. The 45-year-old Heights resident and mother of two is one of a growing number of number of female veterans seeking health care at VA hospitals and clinics nationwide as more women join the military and take on de-facto combat roles in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Marine Katariina Fagering talks to local women in Iraq in 2006. Photo courtesy Katariina Fagering
During Fagering’s 2006 deployment, she went door-to-door with another female Marine to talk to Iraqi women — a mission her male counterparts couldn’t do because of cultural taboos. This type of “engagement” carried out by women attached to male infantry and special forces units has become an integral part of the U.S. strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It’s dangerous work. Fagering’s friend, Maj. Megan McClung, was the first female Marine officer to be killed in the Iraq war. She died in a roadside bombing in 2006, devastating their entire brigade. “Everyone knew her, she was an exceptional athlete, more energy than humanly possible, smart, funny, and a mentor to so many,” Fagering said. “It’s hard to talk about.”
read more here
Armed Sources
Blogging military and veterans news with Lindsay Wise
Meet Katariina Fagering: a Marine veteran, warrior poet, artist and mom openly coping with post traumatic stress.
I interviewed Fagering last week for an article about Women’s Inpatient Specialty Environment of Recovery (WISER), an acute psychiatric in-patient program at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Houston. The 45-year-old Heights resident and mother of two is one of a growing number of number of female veterans seeking health care at VA hospitals and clinics nationwide as more women join the military and take on de-facto combat roles in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Marine Katariina Fagering talks to local women in Iraq in 2006. Photo courtesy Katariina Fagering
During Fagering’s 2006 deployment, she went door-to-door with another female Marine to talk to Iraqi women — a mission her male counterparts couldn’t do because of cultural taboos. This type of “engagement” carried out by women attached to male infantry and special forces units has become an integral part of the U.S. strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It’s dangerous work. Fagering’s friend, Maj. Megan McClung, was the first female Marine officer to be killed in the Iraq war. She died in a roadside bombing in 2006, devastating their entire brigade. “Everyone knew her, she was an exceptional athlete, more energy than humanly possible, smart, funny, and a mentor to so many,” Fagering said. “It’s hard to talk about.”
read more here
War drawdowns wreak havoc on Guard soldiers' lives
Here is something else that we just don't think about. When National Guard and Reservists are deployed, their entire lives back here are changed.
War drawdowns wreak havoc on Guard soldiers' lives
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press – 4 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two months ago, Demetries Luckett left his job in Michigan, turned in his cable box, sent his daughter to live with her mother, and headed for Camp Shelby in Mississippi.
As a 1st lieutenant in Michigan's National Guard, he was being deployed to Afghanistan.
But just a month after he arrived for training, the Army decided Uncle Sam didn't need him after all.
Now Luckett's unemployed and back home in Harper Woods, Mich. — a victim of the Obama administration's ongoing effort to pull at least 33,000 U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by next fall.
Unlike active-duty soldiers who are stationed at U.S. military bases across the country and can be sent on a moment's notice to a conflict anywhere in the world — the nation's citizen soldiers have civilian jobs and lives they have to set aside when they get those deployment notices.
And unlike active-duty soldiers, Guard members may have little to go back to, if their country changes its mind.
Luckett is not alone.
In the last 60 days, as many as 8,900 Army National Guard soldiers were either sent home early from Iraq or Afghanistan, or were told that the Pentagon's plans to send them to war had either been shelved or changed. As a result, U.S. military and Guard leaders have been scrambling to find alternative missions for many of the soldiers — particularly those who had put their lives and jobs on hold and were depending on the deployment for their livelihood.
"If you're a 25-year-old infantryman, and you're a student at Ohio State University, and you decide not to register for school in July because you were going to mobilize, and we say your services aren't needed anymore — that becomes a significantly emotional event in that person's life," said Col. Ted Hildreth, chief of mobilization and readiness for the Army National Guard.
Guard members scheduled for deployment, he said, often quit or take extended leaves from their jobs, put college on hold, end or break their apartment leases, sell or rent their houses, and turn their medical or legal practices over to someone else. And in some cases, in this flagging economy, Guard members who may be unemployed or underemployed are relying on the year-long paycheck, which can include extra money for combat pay or tax-free benefits.
read more here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)