Marine shot during necklace robbery plugged bullet wounds with fingers
By Ihosvani Rodriguez, Sun Sentinel
9:14 p.m. EST, December 30, 2011
DEERFIELD BEACH—
One bullet went through his belly and lodged in his pelvis, while a second sliced through his chest and out his shoulder. Yet another grazed the back of his skull.
Shot and wounded while chasing thieves on foot, Lt. Col. Karl Trenker said he did what he had been trained to do as a 29-year veteran of the U.S. Marines with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Running with bullet holes wasn't working out well, so I plugged them up with my fingers," Trenker said Friday.
Trenker, 48, was not injured on the battlefield, but in an apartment complex parking lot in Deerfield Beach where he had gone to sell a necklace to a Craigslist buyer-turned-robber. Father and stepfather to seven children, Trenker was released Friday from North Broward Medical Center, nine days after the shooting.
Emergency physician Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, who removed part of Trenker's bowel and left a bullet in his pelvis, attributed the fact that Trenker is alive to his military training and lifestyle.
"When you hear someone is coming in with multiple gunshot wounds, you are concerned," Nichiporenko said. "He was in bad shape."
Trenker spoke several hours after leaving the hospital. He said he feels pain where a 10-inch surgery wound now crosses his stomach area. He walks with a slight limp, but that is expected to fade.
He recounted the moments leading up to the shooting, and described the actions that led his fiancee and doctor to refer to him as "Superman."
read more here
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Returning Marine surprises kids at Tampa International Airport
Returning Marine surprises kids at Tampa International Airport
By: Erik Waxler
TAMPA - The mission was getting seven-year-old Arianna and five-year-old David to open an oversized present before they figured out what's inside.
With a cell phone in each ear, their grandmother, Dana Barrow was coordinating it all.
Tanya McKinley is the kids' mom. She knew what was inside. She told her children it was a gift so big, they had to come to the airport to pick it up.
"My son thinks it's Buzz Lightyear and my daughter is hoping it's a dress," said McKinley.
Sorry kids, no Buzz Lightyear and no dress. It turned out to be something they weren't expecting: Their father.
read more here
By: Erik Waxler
TAMPA - The mission was getting seven-year-old Arianna and five-year-old David to open an oversized present before they figured out what's inside.
With a cell phone in each ear, their grandmother, Dana Barrow was coordinating it all.
Tanya McKinley is the kids' mom. She knew what was inside. She told her children it was a gift so big, they had to come to the airport to pick it up.
"My son thinks it's Buzz Lightyear and my daughter is hoping it's a dress," said McKinley.
Sorry kids, no Buzz Lightyear and no dress. It turned out to be something they weren't expecting: Their father.
read more here
Lewis-McChord leaders ignorance leads to deadly end
Lewis-McChord leaders ignorance leads to deadly end
by
Chaplain Kathie
Who sold the military on this and why do they continue to buy it?
This quote sums up exactly what has been going on at Lewis-McChord and across every base, every branch.
As pointed out over the last four years by Wounded Times, this does more damage than good but they have yet to see it. They keep insisting on using this deadly failure of a program. They defend what they have been doing no matter what the result has been. What is worse is they continue to delude the public into thinking they finally get it.
All this "resiliency training" does is leave them feeling as if PTSD is their fault because they didn't train their brains right and they are weak. When 1 out of 3 walk away from trauma trapped inside of them, they see the other two manage somehow to "get over it" then the training reverberates in their ears telling them they are to blame. They just weren't mentally tough enough and didn't train right.
Tell a parent their son or daughter took their own life because that was what they were trained to do. Isn't that what we're talking about here? Now we have all these suicides, all these years later with grieving families wondering what they did wrong when they should be asking what the hell the DOD did wrong!
For more on this story
by
Chaplain Kathie
Who sold the military on this and why do they continue to buy it?
This quote sums up exactly what has been going on at Lewis-McChord and across every base, every branch.
“We take suicide very seriously,” Dangerfield said. “We’re going to continue to push the envelope to make sure soldiers get the resiliency training they need.”
As pointed out over the last four years by Wounded Times, this does more damage than good but they have yet to see it. They keep insisting on using this deadly failure of a program. They defend what they have been doing no matter what the result has been. What is worse is they continue to delude the public into thinking they finally get it.
All this "resiliency training" does is leave them feeling as if PTSD is their fault because they didn't train their brains right and they are weak. When 1 out of 3 walk away from trauma trapped inside of them, they see the other two manage somehow to "get over it" then the training reverberates in their ears telling them they are to blame. They just weren't mentally tough enough and didn't train right.
Tell a parent their son or daughter took their own life because that was what they were trained to do. Isn't that what we're talking about here? Now we have all these suicides, all these years later with grieving families wondering what they did wrong when they should be asking what the hell the DOD did wrong!
JBLM suicides hit grim milestone in 2011 - most ever
ADAM ASHTON; STAFF WRITER
Published: 12/30/11
Joint Base Lewis-McChord passed an unwelcome milestone in 2011, recording more soldier suicides than in any previous year.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord passed an unwelcome milestone in 2011, recording more soldier suicides than in any previous year.
Twelve soldiers took their own lives in 2011, up from nine in 2010 and nine in 2009, Army I Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield said. The total could grow as the Army completes investigations ahead of its annual suicide report next month.
The toll at Lewis-McChord rose despite new efforts to counsel soldiers when they come home from war, including the creation of a suicide-prevention office.
Lewis-McChord leaders plan to apply what they learned from those programs to help soldiers cope with stress at home and in their work.
“We take suicide very seriously,” Dangerfield said. “We’re going to continue to push the envelope to make sure soldiers get the resiliency training they need.”read more here
For more on this story
Editorial Board is wrong on Joint Base Lewis-McChord and PTSD
DOD message has been PTSD is your fault
The $125-million Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Failure
Copper thieves target Habitat home built for disabled veteran
Copper thieves target Habitat home built for disabled veteranUPDATE
December 29, 2011
Syracuse (WSYR-TV) -- A house for a disabled veteran, built by veterans is a shining example of humanity.
After a year of hard work and grueling fundraising, volunteers had finally put the finishing touches on the place, with a brand new boiler and all the trimmings, when the thieves severed pipes, busted out a window and left holes in the drywall.
"We have a homeowner who is in a wheelchair. He desperately needs to live close to the VA hospital and this was going to be his home in what we thought would be no more than two weeks,” said Habitat for Humanity’s Executive Director Suzanne Williams.
Construction Manager Michael Brownfield said, "They took a big rock and threw it through the window and literally busted out the window. It made a lot of noise. I mean they weren't quiet about it."
The brazen thieves caused as much as $10,000 in damage, trying to dig out whatever copper piping they could find.
read more here
CNY HVAC supplier to help Habitat home damaged by copper thieves
Syracuse (WSYR-TV) -- An act of vandalism was followed up by an act of kindness after a local man stepped up to help repair damage at a Habitat for Humanity house targeted by copper thieves this month.
After hearing the story on the news, VP Supply Corporation's Christopher Maroney says he will either salvage a damaged boiler in the home or replace it.
read more here
Marine Charged With Stabbing at Movie Theater
NEW INFO: Marine Charged With Stabbing
A Camp Lejeune Marine faces a serious charge this morning for a stabbing at a local movie theater.
Posted: 5:23 AM Dec 30, 2011
One of the comments left on the site stated this.
"Dec 30, 2011 at 09:47 PMread more here
it was two FEMALE marines that jumped in after this man went nuts on not only the man that was stabbed but also his girl freind. any resonable person who saw that would jump in. thats what happend. the marines broke it up and helped the man that was stabbed. if you were not there or involved, dont spread any lies."
Friday, December 30, 2011
Vietnam Veterans of America want wrongful discharges corrected
Saturday, September 29, 2007
10 discharges a day for "personality disorder"
Many soldiers get boot for 'pre-existing' mental illness
St. Louis Post-Dispatch September 29, 2007
By Philip Dine
WASHINGTON -- Thousands of U.S. soldiers in Iraq - as many as 10 a day - are being discharged by the military for mental health reasons. But the Pentagon isn't blaming the war. It says the soldiers had "pre-existing" conditions that disqualify them for treatment by the government.
Many soldiers and Marines being discharged on this basis actually suffer from combat-related problems, experts say. But by classifying them as having a condition unrelated to the war, the Defense Department is able to quickly get rid of troops having trouble doing their work while also saving the expense of caring for them.
The result appears to be that many actually suffering from combat-related problems such as post traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries don't get the help they need.
Working behind the scenes, Sens. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., have written and inserted into the defense authorization bill a provision that would make it harder for the Pentagon to discharge thousands of troops. The Post-Dispatch has learned that the measure has been accepted into the Senate defense bill and will probably become part of the Senate-House bill to be voted on this week.
read more here
Monday, August 20, 2007
Department of Defense to Armed Forces:It's your fault
Treating the trauma of war – fairly
In relabeling cases of PTSD as 'personality disorder,' the US military avoids paying for treatment.
By Judith Schwartz
from the August 20, 2007 edition
Bennington, Vt. - The high incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among soldiers returning from Iraq is one of the many "inconvenient truths" of this war. Inconvenient largely because it is costly: The most effective and humane means of treating PTSD are time-intensive and long-term.
The military, however, has changed the terms and given many thousands of enlisted men and women a new diagnosis: "personality disorder." While the government would be obliged to care for veterans suffering from combat-related trauma, a personality disorder – defined as an ingrained, maladaptive way of orienting oneself to the world – predates a soldier's tour of duty (read: preexisting condition). This absolves Uncle Sam of any responsibility for the person's mental suffering.
read more here
Thursday, December 27, 2007
DOD claims 85% of discharges for personality disorder were right?
Military Works to Improve Personality Disorder-Based Discharge Process
By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2007 – The military is working to improve the way it implements a policy of discharging troops based on pre-existing personality disorders, Defense Department health officials said today.
Several articles in summer 2007 claimed that some 22,500 troops had been discharged -- in some instances, wrongly discharged -- after being diagnosed as having personality disorders. In response, the Defense Department launched a “secondary review.”
In the ongoing investigation thus far, officials have reconfirmed that 85 percent of servicemembers initially determined to have personality disorders were correctly diagnosed. Roughly 1.5 percent, however, were misdiagnosed, officials said.
“We have looked at most of them, and some, on review, have been incorrect diagnoses,” Dr. S. Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, told reporters at the Pentagon today.
read more here
There are more of these reports on Wounded Times, but you get the idea. This has been going on for a long time and so far, not much has been done to correct any of this.
Vets Say Pentagon Misdiagnosed Thousands
By CHRIS COUGHLIN
Friday, December 30, 2011
NEW HAVEN (CN) - The Vietnam Veterans of America says the Pentagon has "systematically and wrongfully discharged" more than 22,000 veterans since 2001 "on the basis of so-called 'personality disorder'" - rather than post-traumatic stress disorder - to deny them medical care and save the Pentagon $12.5 billion in medical and disability payments.
"The military classifies PD [personality disorder] as a condition pre-existing military service," the four plaintiff chapters of the Vietnam Veterans of America say in their federal complaint against the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.
"Veterans discharged from the military on the basis of a PD diagnosis are not entitled to receive service-connected disability benefits or VA health care.
"By its own admission, DoD dismissed 22,656 service members on the basis of PD between fiscal years 2001 and 2007; 3,372 of these discharged service members had served in combat or imminent danger zones in support of OCO [overseas contingency operation - Pentagonspeak for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan]. Approximately 2,800 of the service members whom DoD had dismissed on the basis of PD had deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom.
"By discharging over 22,000 service members on the basis of PD, DoD saved the military approximately $4.5 billion in medical care and $8 billion in disability compensation that these service members would have received had they been discharged on the basis of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder ('PTSD') or another service-connected disability."
The veterans say the Pentagon and Homeland Security have blown off their requests for "records relating to the use by branches of the United States armed forces and the National Guard of PD discharges and adjustment disorder or readjustment disorder discharges to discharge service members since October 1, 2001."
And: "Because DoD refuses to admit that it incorrectly discharged many service members on the basis of PD, an unknown number of veterans who served with integrity and valor in the armed forces continue to be denied service-connected disability benefits and VA health care."
read more here
Vietnam Vet meets grown son for first time
Uploaded by kxan on Dec 29, 2011
On a Bastrop horse farm, Vietnam veteran Mike Gold is getting to know the 47-year-old son he was never sure he had -- who actually was born on the same day as his father: April 27.
On a Bastrop horse farm, Vietnam veteran Mike Gold is getting to know the 47-year-old son he was never sure he had -- who actually was born on the same day as his father: April 27.
Another Fort Campbell soldier nabs car burglar
Second Fort Campbell soldier nabs car burglar
9:10 PM, Dec. 29, 2011
Written by
Philip Grey
and Chris Smith
For the second time this week, a Fort Campbell soldier has caught and detained a vehicle burglary suspect in the neighborhoods just north of Tiny Town Road.
At about 2:15 a.m. Wednesday, Maj. Scott Puckett, 40, saw two men walking past his house on Old Timber Road when one of the men stopped in his driveway and looked in his vehicles, according to a news release from Clarksville Police spokesman Officer Jim Knoll.
Puckett went outside and saw a man, later identified as Rafael Alves Quina, opening and closing the driver's side door of his Chevrolet Suburban.
read more here
9:10 PM, Dec. 29, 2011
Written by
Philip Grey
and Chris Smith
For the second time this week, a Fort Campbell soldier has caught and detained a vehicle burglary suspect in the neighborhoods just north of Tiny Town Road.
At about 2:15 a.m. Wednesday, Maj. Scott Puckett, 40, saw two men walking past his house on Old Timber Road when one of the men stopped in his driveway and looked in his vehicles, according to a news release from Clarksville Police spokesman Officer Jim Knoll.
Puckett went outside and saw a man, later identified as Rafael Alves Quina, opening and closing the driver's side door of his Chevrolet Suburban.
read more here
Those found guilty of using Spice 'Synthetic' marijuana are kicked out
'Synthetic' marijuana is problem for US military
By Julie Watson
Associated Press / December 30, 2011
SAN DIEGO—U.S. troops are increasingly using an easy-to-get herbal mix called "Spice," which mimics a marijuana high and can bring on hallucinations that last for days.
The abuse of the drug has so alarmed military officials that they've launched an aggressive testing program that this year has led to the investigation of more than 1,100 suspected users, according to military figures.
So-called "synthetic" pot is readily available on the Internet and has become popular nationwide in recent years, but its use among troops and sailors has raised concerns among the Pentagon brass.
"You can just imagine the work that we do in a military environment," said Mark Ridley, deputy director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, adding, "you need to be in your right mind when you do a job. That's why the Navy has always taken a zero tolerance policy toward drugs."
Two years ago, only 29 Marines and sailors were investigated for Spice. This year, the number topped 700, the investigative service said. Those found guilty of using Spice are kicked out, although the Navy does not track the overall number of dismissals.
The Air Force has punished 497 airmen so far this year, compared to last year's 380, according to figures provided by the Pentagon. The Army does not track Spice investigations but says it has medically treated 119 soldiers for the synthetic drug in total.
read more here
By Julie Watson
Associated Press / December 30, 2011
SAN DIEGO—U.S. troops are increasingly using an easy-to-get herbal mix called "Spice," which mimics a marijuana high and can bring on hallucinations that last for days.
The abuse of the drug has so alarmed military officials that they've launched an aggressive testing program that this year has led to the investigation of more than 1,100 suspected users, according to military figures.
So-called "synthetic" pot is readily available on the Internet and has become popular nationwide in recent years, but its use among troops and sailors has raised concerns among the Pentagon brass.
"You can just imagine the work that we do in a military environment," said Mark Ridley, deputy director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, adding, "you need to be in your right mind when you do a job. That's why the Navy has always taken a zero tolerance policy toward drugs."
Two years ago, only 29 Marines and sailors were investigated for Spice. This year, the number topped 700, the investigative service said. Those found guilty of using Spice are kicked out, although the Navy does not track the overall number of dismissals.
The Air Force has punished 497 airmen so far this year, compared to last year's 380, according to figures provided by the Pentagon. The Army does not track Spice investigations but says it has medically treated 119 soldiers for the synthetic drug in total.
read more here
Iraq vets need time to heal
'Be patient with us': Iraq vets need time to heal
I pulled the newspaper clipping from my bag and slid it across the table.
Nicole Brodeur
Seattle Times staff columnist
Marc Loiselle took in the headline: "Obama marks end of Iraq war, welcomes 'equal partnership.' "
He looked at the photo of the president and Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki placing a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery.
"How clean this looks," Loiselle said, running his hand across the clip. "How clean it seems, when it was absolute horror, an absolute nightmare. It's insane how bad.
"If someone wrote a screenplay, it would be torture porn."
This is not the young man I remembered meeting in 2004, when he returned from his first, one-year tour in Iraq. His parents had invited me to a welcome-home party at their house in Seattle, and I went, wanting not only to talk to a witness to a war, but to gauge how one returns from it.
Loiselle, then 25, had attended the University of Washington with plans to be a teacher, but the former ROTC member decided to join the Army instead.
At one point, Loiselle and I talked about what he had done as a platoon leader. He was quiet, but clear-eyed. Smart and well-read. It seemed he had gone to war with an informed understanding of why we were there, and what he needed to do.
read more here
I pulled the newspaper clipping from my bag and slid it across the table.
Nicole Brodeur
Seattle Times staff columnist
Iraq war veteran Marc Loiselle was an Army platoon leader. "Sometimes I just feel like I broke," he said. "You just see too many things."I pulled the newspaper clipping from my bag and slid it across the table.
Marc Loiselle took in the headline: "Obama marks end of Iraq war, welcomes 'equal partnership.' "
He looked at the photo of the president and Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki placing a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery.
"How clean this looks," Loiselle said, running his hand across the clip. "How clean it seems, when it was absolute horror, an absolute nightmare. It's insane how bad.
"If someone wrote a screenplay, it would be torture porn."
This is not the young man I remembered meeting in 2004, when he returned from his first, one-year tour in Iraq. His parents had invited me to a welcome-home party at their house in Seattle, and I went, wanting not only to talk to a witness to a war, but to gauge how one returns from it.
Loiselle, then 25, had attended the University of Washington with plans to be a teacher, but the former ROTC member decided to join the Army instead.
At one point, Loiselle and I talked about what he had done as a platoon leader. He was quiet, but clear-eyed. Smart and well-read. It seemed he had gone to war with an informed understanding of why we were there, and what he needed to do.
read more here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)