Dad Returns From Afghanistan Dressed As Captain America To Surprise His Son
By Dan Hopper
Here’s a video of a military father returning from Afghanistan and surprising his son by showing up at his birthday party disguised as Captain America. It is as adorable and tear-jerking as all of that sounds, times several billion.
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Saturday, March 24, 2012
Couple's pillows offer troops comfort
Between Iraq and a soft place: Couple's pillows offer troops comfort
by JIM DOUGLAS
WFAA
Posted on March 23, 2012
COLLEYVILLE - In the dining room of a fine home in Colleyville, bolts of fabric lean in corners and colorful neck pillow patterns cover the table waiting to be sewn. Some are western with cowboys and cattle. Some have zebra stripes.
Dianna Titel's sewing machine rattles like a machine gun for hours as she puts them together.
Every day. Stitching pillows in the dining room. Stuffing in the den. Packing in the sun room. Enough to outfit two full divisions.
"Close to 50,000," she said. "Maybe more. Give or take."
That's right - 50,000 pillows. It's all give and no take.
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by JIM DOUGLAS
WFAA
Posted on March 23, 2012
COLLEYVILLE - In the dining room of a fine home in Colleyville, bolts of fabric lean in corners and colorful neck pillow patterns cover the table waiting to be sewn. Some are western with cowboys and cattle. Some have zebra stripes.
Dianna Titel's sewing machine rattles like a machine gun for hours as she puts them together.
Every day. Stitching pillows in the dining room. Stuffing in the den. Packing in the sun room. Enough to outfit two full divisions.
"Close to 50,000," she said. "Maybe more. Give or take."
That's right - 50,000 pillows. It's all give and no take.
read more here
Buckeye Craft’s role model deploys for Afghanistan
Buckeye Craft’s role model deploys for Afghanistan
Last Updated: 7:30 AM, March 24, 2012
Lenn Robbins
BOSTON — Tonight, at almost the exact moment Aaron Craft, Ohio State’s starting point guard, tries to control the opening tip of the NCAA Tournament East Region championship, his older brother, Brandon Craft, a U.S. Army Infantryman, will try to control his emotions as he and his unit fly across the Atlantic for their deployment in Afghanistan.
Yes, smack dab in the middle of America’s Tournament comes a story as American as apple pie and rusty basketball rims.
“Obviously I’m going to worry a little bit, but he’d be the first one to tell you, you shouldn’t worry,’’ Aaron said yesterday. “He’s been trained, and that’s the path he chose.
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Last Updated: 7:30 AM, March 24, 2012
Lenn Robbins
AP
CRAFT WORK: Brandon Craft, the older brother of Ohio State guard Aaron (above, dribbling away from Cincinnati’s Jaquon Parker in Thursday’s victory) is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan with his Army unit tonight when the Buckeyes tip off against Syracuse in the Elite 8.
BOSTON — Tonight, at almost the exact moment Aaron Craft, Ohio State’s starting point guard, tries to control the opening tip of the NCAA Tournament East Region championship, his older brother, Brandon Craft, a U.S. Army Infantryman, will try to control his emotions as he and his unit fly across the Atlantic for their deployment in Afghanistan.
Yes, smack dab in the middle of America’s Tournament comes a story as American as apple pie and rusty basketball rims.
“Obviously I’m going to worry a little bit, but he’d be the first one to tell you, you shouldn’t worry,’’ Aaron said yesterday. “He’s been trained, and that’s the path he chose.
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71 years young Marine vet biking U.S. for injured Marine fund
Marine vet biking U.S. for injured Marine fund
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Mar 23, 2012 9:21:27 EDT
PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. — A 71-year-old former Marine is setting out in an unusual manner to raise money for injured and ill veterans and their families.
Rick Hermelin leaves from the Parris Island Marine Corps Recruiting Depot on Friday to make his way across the nation on an elliptical bicycle.
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The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Mar 23, 2012 9:21:27 EDT
PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. — A 71-year-old former Marine is setting out in an unusual manner to raise money for injured and ill veterans and their families.
Rick Hermelin leaves from the Parris Island Marine Corps Recruiting Depot on Friday to make his way across the nation on an elliptical bicycle.
read more here
Tebow salutes war hero Marine by wearing wristband bearing his name
Tebow salutes war hero Marine by wearing wristband bearing his name
Tebow’s wrist salute to amputee Marine
By BOBBY MARTINEZ in Tampa, Fla., and RICH CALDER in NY
Last Updated: 7:16 AM, March 24, 2012
“Oh, wow! Really?” Cpl. Michael Nicholson said after learning that Tebow was wearing a wristband bearing the hero’s name when the newest member of Gang Green came to town.
Tebow was photographed sporting the red wristband with Nicholson’s name emblazoned in yellow lettering after landing aboard a private jet Thursday in New Jersey and then en route to Gang Green’s Florham Park training headquarters.
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Tebow’s wrist salute to amputee Marine
By BOBBY MARTINEZ in Tampa, Fla., and RICH CALDER in NY
Last Updated: 7:16 AM, March 24, 2012
Tim Tebow upon arriving in New York this week subtly paid tribute to a crippled war hero — a salute that left the Marine stunned.IAMAMARINE.COMMichael Nicholson
“Oh, wow! Really?” Cpl. Michael Nicholson said after learning that Tebow was wearing a wristband bearing the hero’s name when the newest member of Gang Green came to town.
Tebow was photographed sporting the red wristband with Nicholson’s name emblazoned in yellow lettering after landing aboard a private jet Thursday in New Jersey and then en route to Gang Green’s Florham Park training headquarters.
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Retired Marine is being charged for shooting and killing his wife
Man Charged For Killing Wife
Posted in Local
23 March 201
A retired Marine is being charged for shooting and killing his wife. Some think as a result of PTSD.
As we dug deeper we found out that 43 year old Bourne Huddleston, suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his time in the military as a Marine. To those who knew him, it was a shock.
read more here
Posted in Local
23 March 201
A retired Marine is being charged for shooting and killing his wife. Some think as a result of PTSD.
As we dug deeper we found out that 43 year old Bourne Huddleston, suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his time in the military as a Marine. To those who knew him, it was a shock.
read more here
Navy Civilian Employee Accused Of Defrauding Navy and VA
Gardener Accused Of Defrauding Navy, VA
Leray Shurn Faces Fraud Charges, According To Federal Indictment
March 23, 2012
SAN DIEGO -- A Chula Vista gardener allegedly defrauded the Navy and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs out of $400,000 in workers' compensation claims and disability benefits, according to a federal indictment unsealed Friday.
Leray Shurn, 59, was compensated for claims that he suffered back and knee injuries as a Navy civilian employee, but hid the fact that he ran his business and performed some of the landscaping work himself, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
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Leray Shurn Faces Fraud Charges, According To Federal Indictment
March 23, 2012
SAN DIEGO -- A Chula Vista gardener allegedly defrauded the Navy and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs out of $400,000 in workers' compensation claims and disability benefits, according to a federal indictment unsealed Friday.
Leray Shurn, 59, was compensated for claims that he suffered back and knee injuries as a Navy civilian employee, but hid the fact that he ran his business and performed some of the landscaping work himself, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
read more here
Alabama Chilton County VA officer position eliminated
County VA officer position eliminated
By Stephen Dawkins
Published 1:59pm Friday, March 23, 2012
Many former soldiers in Chilton County are upset and confused about the closing of the local Veterans Affairs office.
Jennifer Kamerer, who served as a full-time VA agent in the Chilton County Courthouse, told the county commission at its meeting on March 12 that her position had been eliminated.
“What we’re looking at is a major, major blow to our county,” Kamerer told the commission.
The office will be staffed one day a week, on Fridays, from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m., by a service officer that travels from the Shelby County office in Columbiana. Or veterans can travel to VA offices in Autauga, Bibb, Dallas or Shelby counties.
Kamerer said the arrangement isn’t adequate to serve the county’s more than 3,000 veterans, an opinion seconded by Phil Burnette, commander of the 23rd District, American Legion Department of Alabama.
“I’m hearing a lot of anger from the veterans, myself included,” Burnette said. “A lot of our veterans are not able to travel. To be quite blunt, I think it’s a shame and a disgrace that we’re being left without representation in the county.”
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Friday, March 23, 2012
Daily headaches common in soldiers after concussion
Let me give you some hope here. If you have TBI you'll find it helps.
Before doctors knew anything about traumatic brain injury, I had one. I was 4. My parents brought my brothers and me to a drive-in movie. There was a playground for little kids like me and another one for older kids. Well, I snuck away from my brothers, climbed the big slide and got scared being up that high alone. A kid behind me wasn't about to wait any longer, so he shoved me. The problem was, I didn't go down. I went over the side. Head first on concrete, my oldest brother thought I was dead. My scull was cracked all the way around and I had a concussion. Making a long story short, no one really connected what came next after that night.
I started to have problems with my speech. They sent me to a therapist. I couldn't remember things as easily as I did before, so I got frustrated with everything and got yelled at a lot by my parents.
That was then. I learned to play with my memory so that I could remember things. Headaches come and go even now, almost 50 years later (yes, I'm that old.) The therapy helped with my speech except when I get excited, I talk too fast. While I can read anything, I have a hard time spelling, but all that is easy to deal with.
The trauma of that night was another story. That was harder to overcome but I'm not afraid of heights anymore.
TBI is not the end of anything except the past. When you think that each day we change a little bit just living a normal life, that isn't so hard to understand. We adapt and change with what happens in our lives. That's the human spirit. Don't give up. Work on getting better with your therapist and have some patience with yourself.
Once all of these experts understand that PTSD and TBI are only connected to the event that caused both, they'll be able to treat each one differently. I don't have PTSD but as my body had to heal from the injury, my mind had to heal from the event itself. Oh, heck, maybe back then I had mild PTSD too but they didn't know anything about that either.
Before doctors knew anything about traumatic brain injury, I had one. I was 4. My parents brought my brothers and me to a drive-in movie. There was a playground for little kids like me and another one for older kids. Well, I snuck away from my brothers, climbed the big slide and got scared being up that high alone. A kid behind me wasn't about to wait any longer, so he shoved me. The problem was, I didn't go down. I went over the side. Head first on concrete, my oldest brother thought I was dead. My scull was cracked all the way around and I had a concussion. Making a long story short, no one really connected what came next after that night.
I started to have problems with my speech. They sent me to a therapist. I couldn't remember things as easily as I did before, so I got frustrated with everything and got yelled at a lot by my parents.
That was then. I learned to play with my memory so that I could remember things. Headaches come and go even now, almost 50 years later (yes, I'm that old.) The therapy helped with my speech except when I get excited, I talk too fast. While I can read anything, I have a hard time spelling, but all that is easy to deal with.
The trauma of that night was another story. That was harder to overcome but I'm not afraid of heights anymore.
TBI is not the end of anything except the past. When you think that each day we change a little bit just living a normal life, that isn't so hard to understand. We adapt and change with what happens in our lives. That's the human spirit. Don't give up. Work on getting better with your therapist and have some patience with yourself.
Once all of these experts understand that PTSD and TBI are only connected to the event that caused both, they'll be able to treat each one differently. I don't have PTSD but as my body had to heal from the injury, my mind had to heal from the event itself. Oh, heck, maybe back then I had mild PTSD too but they didn't know anything about that either.
Daily headaches common in soldiers after concussion
By Kerry Grens
NEW YORK | Fri Mar 23, 2012 6:04pm EDT
(Reuters Health) - One in five soldiers who returns from Iraq or Afghanistan having suffered a concussion develops chronic headaches that occur at least half the days of each month, according to a new survey.
Army researchers examined nearly 1,000 soldiers with a history of deployment-related concussion and found 20 percent had suffered the frequent headaches diagnosed as "chronic daily headache" for three months or more. Of those, a quarter literally had the headaches every day.
Concussion is considered a mild traumatic brain injury and is commonly followed by headaches. But little was understood about how many military personnel were experiencing the intense head pain daily -- or close to it -- for months on end.
"In general we know that chronic daily headache is itself one of the most debilitating forms of headache...and can sometimes be difficult to treat," said Major Brett Theeler, the study's lead author.
To gauge how widespread the problem is, Theeler, a doctor with the AMEDD Student Detachment, 187th Medical Battalion, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and his colleagues surveyed 978 soldiers who had been deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan.
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Creed singer visits Yokosuka to thank troops for earthquake relief efforts
Creed singer visits Yokosuka to thank troops for earthquake relief efforts
By TREVOR ANDERSEN
Stars and Stripes
Published: March 18, 2012
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Scott Stapp, the lead singer of the rock band Creed, toured Sendai on Saturday to see the destruction left from last year’s massive tsunami. Then, he stopped by Yokosuka Naval Base to thank some of the troops for their efforts in the days and weeks following the March 11, 2011, disaster.
“It’s amazing what Operation Tomodachi did,” said Stapp who performed an acoustic concert Sunday aboard the USS George Washington. He was traveling in Japan with his wife, Jaclyn, a former Miss New York.
“We visited Sendai yesterday; we saw the destruction and we saw what you did, so we hoped to give everyone here a time to escape from their responsibilities and have fun,” Scott Stapp said. “We want to remind everyone how much we appreciate and support them.”
The rock singer also visited Haiti in 2010 to help the earthquake victims and was impressed by the humanitarian aid provided by the US military.
read more here
By TREVOR ANDERSEN
Stars and Stripes
Published: March 18, 2012
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Scott Stapp, the lead singer of the rock band Creed, toured Sendai on Saturday to see the destruction left from last year’s massive tsunami. Then, he stopped by Yokosuka Naval Base to thank some of the troops for their efforts in the days and weeks following the March 11, 2011, disaster.
“It’s amazing what Operation Tomodachi did,” said Stapp who performed an acoustic concert Sunday aboard the USS George Washington. He was traveling in Japan with his wife, Jaclyn, a former Miss New York.
“We visited Sendai yesterday; we saw the destruction and we saw what you did, so we hoped to give everyone here a time to escape from their responsibilities and have fun,” Scott Stapp said. “We want to remind everyone how much we appreciate and support them.”
The rock singer also visited Haiti in 2010 to help the earthquake victims and was impressed by the humanitarian aid provided by the US military.
read more here
Staff Sgt. Bales charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder
Bales charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder
By MATT SCHOFIELD
McClatchy Newspapers
Published: March 23, 2012
Army Staff Sgt Robert Bales could face the death penalty after being officially charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. Bales, who has been held at the Ft. Leavenworth military prison for about a week also faces six attempted murder charges.
WASHINGTON — Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder Friday in a case that could lead to the death penalty.
Bales allegedly armed himself with a pistol, rifle and grenade launcher and shot men, women and children in a nighttime raid that stands as the worst American atrocity since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan.
The charges — given to Bales on Friday at the high-security Army prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. — also include six counts of attempted murder and six of assault carried out in two remote villages in southern Afghanistan on March 11. The incident has deeply shaken U.S.-Afghan relations and fueled outrage against the U.S. and its continued presence in that country.
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By MATT SCHOFIELD
McClatchy Newspapers
Published: March 23, 2012
Army Staff Sgt Robert Bales could face the death penalty after being officially charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. Bales, who has been held at the Ft. Leavenworth military prison for about a week also faces six attempted murder charges.
WASHINGTON — Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder Friday in a case that could lead to the death penalty.
Bales allegedly armed himself with a pistol, rifle and grenade launcher and shot men, women and children in a nighttime raid that stands as the worst American atrocity since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan.
The charges — given to Bales on Friday at the high-security Army prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. — also include six counts of attempted murder and six of assault carried out in two remote villages in southern Afghanistan on March 11. The incident has deeply shaken U.S.-Afghan relations and fueled outrage against the U.S. and its continued presence in that country.
read more here
Army improves help for sexual assault victims
Army improves help for sexual assault victims
By Cid Standifer - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Mar 22, 2012 15:18:11 EDT
Pvt. Jessica Kenyon was in the Army from 2005 to 2006. In that short time, she says she was raped twice and also forcibly groped by three fellow soldiers.
She stayed silent because she feared retaliation and being ostracized, she said. She sought counseling after the groping because the cumulative trauma was crippling her ability to work, she said.
“I felt like I was betraying my country,” she said.
Instead of trying to help her, she said her commanders tried to charge her with adultery for becoming pregnant, despite having already filed divorce papers from her husband.
She told Military Times that the fetus, which she later miscarried, probably belonged to one of her alleged rapists.
read more here
By Cid Standifer - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Mar 22, 2012 15:18:11 EDT
Pvt. Jessica Kenyon was in the Army from 2005 to 2006. In that short time, she says she was raped twice and also forcibly groped by three fellow soldiers.
She stayed silent because she feared retaliation and being ostracized, she said. She sought counseling after the groping because the cumulative trauma was crippling her ability to work, she said.
“I felt like I was betraying my country,” she said.
Instead of trying to help her, she said her commanders tried to charge her with adultery for becoming pregnant, despite having already filed divorce papers from her husband.
She told Military Times that the fetus, which she later miscarried, probably belonged to one of her alleged rapists.
read more here
Iraq Veteran killed under Florida law didn't matter as much
Where was national media when this happened?
Iraq War veteran killed; widow says Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law is free pass for murder
12:50 PM, Mar 22, 2012
Written by
Kevin Held
Valrico, FL (CNN/WFLA/WTFS/WTSP) - Outrage over last month's shooting death of an unarmed teen in Florida has put a new focus on the state's "Stand Your Ground" law. The widow of a man shot dead in front of his daughter, says it is a free pass for murder.
When David James, an Iraq War veteran, escaped combat in the Middle East unscathed, his wife Kanina breathed a sigh of relief.
"I would worry about him but I thought he'd be safe here," she said.
Kanina was wrong; and now wants to know why Trevor Dooley, a 71-year-old retired bus driver, shot her husband in broad daylight, right front of their eight-year-old daughter. Dooley claims it was self defense. Kanina James calls it murder.
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For all the people getting ready for 12/21/12, they need to think again
Off topic but can't help it.
For all the people getting ready for 12/21/12, they need to think again. What was 12/21/12 to Maya, was changed a long time after they developed the calendar.
For all the people getting ready for 12/21/12, they need to think again. What was 12/21/12 to Maya, was changed a long time after they developed the calendar.
Maya CalendarSo does anyone really know what time it is?
A different calendar was used to track longer periods of time, and for the inscription of calendar dates (i.e., identifying when one event occurred in relation to others). This is the Long Count. It is a count of days since a mythological starting-point.[6] According to the correlation between the Long Count and Western calendars accepted by the great majority of Maya researchers (known as the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson, or GMT, correlation), this starting-point is equivalent to August 11, 3114 BCE in the proleptic Gregorian calendar or 6 September in the Julian calendar (−3113 astronomical).
15 soldiers learn results of PTSD re-evaluations
15 soldiers learn results of PTSD re-evaluations
The Army announced Wednesday that it has notified 15 soldiers of their behavioral health diagnoses amid an investigation into whether Madigan Army Medical Center’s forensic psychiatry unit wrongly changed post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses.
STACIA GLENN; STAFF WRITER
Published: 03/22/12
The Army announced Wednesday that it has notified 15 soldiers of their behavioral health diagnoses amid an investigation into whether Madigan Army Medical Center’s forensic psychiatry unit wrongly changed post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses.
In January, the Army opened an investigation into the Madigan evaluation team following complaints that it adjusted diagnoses in such a way that soldiers did not receive full disability benefits for PTSD. The Army is conducting at least three investigations into Madigan’s PTSD diagnoses.
Of the 1,500 soldiers who have been diagnosed at Madigan since 2007, 285 were invited to be re-evaluated.
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The Army announced Wednesday that it has notified 15 soldiers of their behavioral health diagnoses amid an investigation into whether Madigan Army Medical Center’s forensic psychiatry unit wrongly changed post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses.
STACIA GLENN; STAFF WRITER
Published: 03/22/12
The Army announced Wednesday that it has notified 15 soldiers of their behavioral health diagnoses amid an investigation into whether Madigan Army Medical Center’s forensic psychiatry unit wrongly changed post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses.
In January, the Army opened an investigation into the Madigan evaluation team following complaints that it adjusted diagnoses in such a way that soldiers did not receive full disability benefits for PTSD. The Army is conducting at least three investigations into Madigan’s PTSD diagnoses.
Of the 1,500 soldiers who have been diagnosed at Madigan since 2007, 285 were invited to be re-evaluated.
read more here
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