Veteran Survives 3 Tours Of Duty But He’s Gunned Down In Lancaster
April 22, 2012
LANCASTER (CBS)
A 30-year-old veteran who served three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan was shot to death Saturday in Lancaster, sheriff’s officials said.
Nathen Taylor’s family is grieving and in disbelief.
The shooting in the 700 block of West Avenue H-7 occurred around 12:10 a.m., said Deputy Guillermina Saldana of the Sheriff’s Headquarters Bureau.
Taylor, according to his brother Patrick, had just left a party because he didn’t like to be around a lot of drinking. Taylor called his brother to say he would be dropping by his house within a few minutes.
Taylor was sitting alone in his car, cell phone in hand, when he was shot by an unknown assailant.
read more here
Monday, April 23, 2012
Rape Alleged At West Point, Annapolis
Rape Alleged At West Point, Annapolis
2 Women Claim Academies Ignored 'Rampant Sexual Harassment'
By Kyra Phillips and Jessi Joseph
CNN
April 22, 2012
(CNN) -- Karley Marquet and Annie Kendzior said they enrolled at two of the nation's most prestigious military academies to serve their country and become military officers. Instead, they claim, they were raped -- and their military careers are now over. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. Federal Court on Friday, the women claim the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, ignored "rampant sexual harassment."
The suit claims former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the former superintendents of the two academies and the current secretaries of the Army and Navy are "personally responsible" for failing to "prevent rapes and sexual assaults at the Naval Academy and West Point."
Karley Marquet was a high school honor student, championship swimmer and all-star rugby player. She could have gone to college anywhere with her credentials, but Marquet chose West Point.
"When I was accepted, it was kind of overwhelming," she says. "You can't imagine having that structure and discipline but at the same time having people look at you like, 'Wow, you're doing something great for our country.'"
But Marquet said her dream of becoming an officer was shattered in January 2011, her second semester at West Point.
read more here
2 Women Claim Academies Ignored 'Rampant Sexual Harassment'
By Kyra Phillips and Jessi Joseph
CNN
April 22, 2012
(CNN) -- Karley Marquet and Annie Kendzior said they enrolled at two of the nation's most prestigious military academies to serve their country and become military officers. Instead, they claim, they were raped -- and their military careers are now over. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. Federal Court on Friday, the women claim the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, ignored "rampant sexual harassment."
The suit claims former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the former superintendents of the two academies and the current secretaries of the Army and Navy are "personally responsible" for failing to "prevent rapes and sexual assaults at the Naval Academy and West Point."
Karley Marquet was a high school honor student, championship swimmer and all-star rugby player. She could have gone to college anywhere with her credentials, but Marquet chose West Point.
"When I was accepted, it was kind of overwhelming," she says. "You can't imagine having that structure and discipline but at the same time having people look at you like, 'Wow, you're doing something great for our country.'"
But Marquet said her dream of becoming an officer was shattered in January 2011, her second semester at West Point.
read more here
Honors college students use social media to help soldiers
Students use social media to assist soldiers
By Jessica Velez ASST. NEWS EDITOR
Published: Monday, April 23, 2012
SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE
As a result of their efforts, soldiers deliver school supplies to children in Afghanistan.
Social media might be useful for keeping track of friends and messaging the occasional celebrity, but a group of honors students is using the social media platform to help Afghan children and veterans of the Iraq War and Afghanistan conflict.
“Social Media, Social Change: One Pencil Can Help Bring Peace,” is an honors course in its second semester of existence. Taught by Liisa Temple, an Emmy Award-winning freelance journalist, the idea for the course grew from School Supplies for Afghan Children, a charity she started with her husband, retired U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Rex Temple, in 2009 after an encounter he had with a child in Afghanistan.
“When I was handing out the candy, this particular child was fixated on my ballpoint pen,” Rex said. “And he kept saying … the Dari word for pen.”
Rex said he knew what the word meant but asked his interpreter why the child kept saying it. He learned that the child didn’t want to be like his father and toil in the fields.
“He knew the route out of poverty was through education,” Rex said.
Rex called Liisa at home and asked her to ship all of the extra pens and pencils they had lying around their house, an effort that eventually grew into the school supplies program.
Students enrolled in the Honors College course follow in the footsteps of Rex, who delivered more than 700 boxes of school supplies during his last tour in Afghanistan, which ended April 2010. This semester, students have shipped 65 boxes to Afghan school children, Liisa said, with another 50 to 100 boxes ready to ship out this week. School Supplies for Afghan Children has grown to include participants in 17 states and resulted in more than 20,000 pounds of donated school supplies, such as notebooks, pens, pencils and loose-leaf paper.
read more here
By Jessica Velez ASST. NEWS EDITOR
Published: Monday, April 23, 2012
SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE
As a result of their efforts, soldiers deliver school supplies to children in Afghanistan.
Social media might be useful for keeping track of friends and messaging the occasional celebrity, but a group of honors students is using the social media platform to help Afghan children and veterans of the Iraq War and Afghanistan conflict.
“Social Media, Social Change: One Pencil Can Help Bring Peace,” is an honors course in its second semester of existence. Taught by Liisa Temple, an Emmy Award-winning freelance journalist, the idea for the course grew from School Supplies for Afghan Children, a charity she started with her husband, retired U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Rex Temple, in 2009 after an encounter he had with a child in Afghanistan.
“When I was handing out the candy, this particular child was fixated on my ballpoint pen,” Rex said. “And he kept saying … the Dari word for pen.”
Rex said he knew what the word meant but asked his interpreter why the child kept saying it. He learned that the child didn’t want to be like his father and toil in the fields.
“He knew the route out of poverty was through education,” Rex said.
Rex called Liisa at home and asked her to ship all of the extra pens and pencils they had lying around their house, an effort that eventually grew into the school supplies program.
Students enrolled in the Honors College course follow in the footsteps of Rex, who delivered more than 700 boxes of school supplies during his last tour in Afghanistan, which ended April 2010. This semester, students have shipped 65 boxes to Afghan school children, Liisa said, with another 50 to 100 boxes ready to ship out this week. School Supplies for Afghan Children has grown to include participants in 17 states and resulted in more than 20,000 pounds of donated school supplies, such as notebooks, pens, pencils and loose-leaf paper.
read more here
A story of love and tragedy for WWII veteran
A story of love and tragedy
Chester and Mildred Welebob gave much to others. Their homicide/suicide leaves a void in the hearts of friends.
Steve Mocarsky
WILKES-BARRE TWP.
A husband and wife who were victims of a homicide/suicide Friday and Saturday were well-respected in their town and are fondly remembered, according to friends who knew them for many years.
Chester Welebob had served as a township councilman for 20 years, and his wife, Mildred, was a well-loved nursery school teacher before she retired.
“They both cared for each other a lot. They did a lot of things all over town over the years. It’s so sad, so tragic,” said John Quinn, a former township councilman whose father was Chester’s basketball coach in high school.
Wilkes-Barre police on Friday night found 82-year-old Mildred Welebob, a resident of St. Luke’s Villa, in a wheelchair behind a vehicle at the rear of the facility’s parking lot on East Northampton Street. Acting Luzerne County Coroner Bill Lisman said she died of a single gunshot wound, with the cause of death ruled homicide.
A short time later, Chester Welebob, of Wilkes-Barre Township, was found dead inside his car in Wilkes-Barre Township. He was pronounced dead of a single gunshot wound at 12:15 a.m. Saturday, Lisman said, with the cause of death ruled suicide.
read more here
Chester and Mildred Welebob gave much to others. Their homicide/suicide leaves a void in the hearts of friends.
Steve Mocarsky
WILKES-BARRE TWP.
A husband and wife who were victims of a homicide/suicide Friday and Saturday were well-respected in their town and are fondly remembered, according to friends who knew them for many years.
Chester Welebob had served as a township councilman for 20 years, and his wife, Mildred, was a well-loved nursery school teacher before she retired.
“They both cared for each other a lot. They did a lot of things all over town over the years. It’s so sad, so tragic,” said John Quinn, a former township councilman whose father was Chester’s basketball coach in high school.
Wilkes-Barre police on Friday night found 82-year-old Mildred Welebob, a resident of St. Luke’s Villa, in a wheelchair behind a vehicle at the rear of the facility’s parking lot on East Northampton Street. Acting Luzerne County Coroner Bill Lisman said she died of a single gunshot wound, with the cause of death ruled homicide.
A short time later, Chester Welebob, of Wilkes-Barre Township, was found dead inside his car in Wilkes-Barre Township. He was pronounced dead of a single gunshot wound at 12:15 a.m. Saturday, Lisman said, with the cause of death ruled suicide.
read more here
Only 61 survived USS Hobson
N.J. soldiers who endured a naval catastrophe spill their stories of survival 60 years later
Published: Sunday, April 22, 2012
By Kevin Manahan
The Star-Ledger
On a Saturday afternoon in April 1952, two days before his ship would leave for duty during the Korean War, Joseph Torrisi dashed off a two-page letter to his older sister, Rose, on embossed U.S. Navy stationery. A three-cent stamp brought it from Charleston, S.C., to the 400-room Hotel Douglas in Newark, where she was living at the time.
A week earlier, he had sent a note to his mom in Bloomfield, proudly announcing he had found, in Charleston, a Catholic church and, more miraculously, a restaurant that served homemade ravioli.
In tidy penmanship that would have made his grammar-school nuns beam, the 32-year-old wrote that he was spending more money than he had planned, but he wasn’t sweating it. Thanks to a payday aboard ship, he would be flush when he reached Spain, France, Italy, Sicily and Greece.
His destroyer, the USS Hobson, was scheduled to visit 20 Mediterranean ports — a cushy assignment welcomed by Torrisi, a career Navy man who, curiously, disliked life on the sea.
"The next time I write will be from some place I haven’t been to," he told his sister.
But he never made it.
Five days after his final letter arrived in New Jersey, Joseph Torrisi was asleep in his lower-tier bunk at 10:21 p.m., when, during a deadly war-games blunder, the Hobson was sliced in two by the 40,000-ton Wasp, a U.S. aircraft carrier.
Seven hundred miles from the Azores, in cold, turbulent North Atlantic seas three miles deep, the Hobson sank in four minutes or less, taking 176 men with her. Only 61 survived.
read more here
Published: Sunday, April 22, 2012
By Kevin Manahan
The Star-Ledger
On a Saturday afternoon in April 1952, two days before his ship would leave for duty during the Korean War, Joseph Torrisi dashed off a two-page letter to his older sister, Rose, on embossed U.S. Navy stationery. A three-cent stamp brought it from Charleston, S.C., to the 400-room Hotel Douglas in Newark, where she was living at the time.
A week earlier, he had sent a note to his mom in Bloomfield, proudly announcing he had found, in Charleston, a Catholic church and, more miraculously, a restaurant that served homemade ravioli.
In tidy penmanship that would have made his grammar-school nuns beam, the 32-year-old wrote that he was spending more money than he had planned, but he wasn’t sweating it. Thanks to a payday aboard ship, he would be flush when he reached Spain, France, Italy, Sicily and Greece.
His destroyer, the USS Hobson, was scheduled to visit 20 Mediterranean ports — a cushy assignment welcomed by Torrisi, a career Navy man who, curiously, disliked life on the sea.
"The next time I write will be from some place I haven’t been to," he told his sister.
But he never made it.
Five days after his final letter arrived in New Jersey, Joseph Torrisi was asleep in his lower-tier bunk at 10:21 p.m., when, during a deadly war-games blunder, the Hobson was sliced in two by the 40,000-ton Wasp, a U.S. aircraft carrier.
Seven hundred miles from the Azores, in cold, turbulent North Atlantic seas three miles deep, the Hobson sank in four minutes or less, taking 176 men with her. Only 61 survived.
read more here
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Vietnam Memorial Wall Escort in Melbourne
UPDATE
Here is the video from the bikes coming into Wickham Park.
Here are some pictures taken at the Lone Cabbage
I was there filming them as they came into Wickham Park and I can tell you there were a lot more than 1,000 motorcycles. My camera battery ran out before they were all in. Video is processing now so it will be up later tonight. It ran over 16 minutes and still didn't get all the bikes!
Here is the video from the bikes coming into Wickham Park.
Here are some pictures taken at the Lone Cabbage
I was there filming them as they came into Wickham Park and I can tell you there were a lot more than 1,000 motorcycles. My camera battery ran out before they were all in. Video is processing now so it will be up later tonight. It ran over 16 minutes and still didn't get all the bikes!
Hundreds gather for Vietnam memorial event
5:43 PM, Apr. 22, 2012
Written by
Wayne T. Price
FLORIDA TODAY
The weather report for Sunday in Brevard County called for a mixture of wind and rain.
Greg Welsh basically said “no big deal.”
Welsh, longtime member of the Vietnam and All Veterans of Brevard, met with a few dozen volunteers late Sunday morning in Wickham Park to erect the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall.
Rain or shine, the wall was going up Sunday, Welsh said.
“We were putting it up regardless of the rain,” Welsh said. “We fought and died in the rain, so the rain wasn’t a concern.”
The traveling memorial, which is visiting 18 sites around the United States this year, has turned into a notable tradition in Brevard, as it is part of the the Annual Vietnam and All Veterans Reunion, which kicks off Thursday.
As per tradition, supporters on motorcycles gathered at Brevard Community College's Cocoa Campus Sunday morning and escorted the truck and trailer carrying the wall along U.S. 1 to Wickham Park.
Police estimated between 800 to 1,000 motorcyclists were involved.
read more here
Army Surgeon General makes changes after Madigan on PTSD
Army Surgeon General issues new directive on PTSD
Sen. Patty Murray: 'This is an overdue but very welcome step'
Web reporter
Q13 Fox News Online
April 21, 2012
SEATTLE
The Army Surgeon General's Office has issued a new directive for diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder after questions arose about Madigan Army Medical Center’s reversal of more than 300 soldiers’ PTSD diagnoses in the past five years.
The Madigan Army Medical Center is the chief military hospital for Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma. Members of the base's units have seen extensive action in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
The new policy, first reported by the Seattle Times, was confirmed by the office of Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who had been pressing for changes in the way the Army handles PTSD cases.
read more here
Sen. Patty Murray: 'This is an overdue but very welcome step'
Web reporter
Q13 Fox News Online
April 21, 2012
SEATTLE
The Army Surgeon General's Office has issued a new directive for diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder after questions arose about Madigan Army Medical Center’s reversal of more than 300 soldiers’ PTSD diagnoses in the past five years.
The Madigan Army Medical Center is the chief military hospital for Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma. Members of the base's units have seen extensive action in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
The new policy, first reported by the Seattle Times, was confirmed by the office of Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who had been pressing for changes in the way the Army handles PTSD cases.
read more here
Vets in need urged to go through VA for pensions
Vets in need urged to go through VA for pensions
Frank Gray
April 22, 2012
For decades the Veterans Administration has had a pension program called Aid and Attendance that was designed to help some veterans and their spouses who need assistance in their daily lives.
Veterans who were receiving in-home assistance or living in assisted-living centers could receive sometimes generous monthly pensions to help cover those expenses.
The catch was that to be eligible, veterans had to have limited assets and limited income.
The VA didn’t try to keep the benefit a secret, said George Jarboe, Allen County’s veterans’ service officer, but it didn’t promote it heavily, either.
“It was designed to help people who have no money survive,” Jarboe said.
For years, most veterans knew little of the program, but about five years ago word got out and spread rapidly. Depending on their age, most wartime veterans or their widows can have $80,000 in assets, including their home, and depending on how much they spent on aid or assistance, they could get a pension.
Since the program has become popular, financial advisers have been taking full advantage of it. They have been counseling veterans and their spouses or widows that they could get the benefit, even if they had far too much in assets to qualify. All they had to do was “eliminate” their assets and they could start getting monthly checks.
read more here
Frank Gray
April 22, 2012
For decades the Veterans Administration has had a pension program called Aid and Attendance that was designed to help some veterans and their spouses who need assistance in their daily lives.
Veterans who were receiving in-home assistance or living in assisted-living centers could receive sometimes generous monthly pensions to help cover those expenses.
The catch was that to be eligible, veterans had to have limited assets and limited income.
The VA didn’t try to keep the benefit a secret, said George Jarboe, Allen County’s veterans’ service officer, but it didn’t promote it heavily, either.
“It was designed to help people who have no money survive,” Jarboe said.
For years, most veterans knew little of the program, but about five years ago word got out and spread rapidly. Depending on their age, most wartime veterans or their widows can have $80,000 in assets, including their home, and depending on how much they spent on aid or assistance, they could get a pension.
Since the program has become popular, financial advisers have been taking full advantage of it. They have been counseling veterans and their spouses or widows that they could get the benefit, even if they had far too much in assets to qualify. All they had to do was “eliminate” their assets and they could start getting monthly checks.
read more here
OEF OIF TBI cases could reach 460,000
Soldiers' brain trauma cases disputed
Thousands of terror war soldiers who are back home struggle with TBI
By Bill Torpy and Mark Davis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now, he struggles to find the right words when talking. He starts sentences and stops in the middle. He reads a chapter, then realizes none of it has soaked in. Some days, he goes out to get the mail, then can’t remember if he brought it in. If he remembers he brought it in, he can’t remember where he put it.
The Army captain says his brain acts like an Internet dial-up connection: The information is there, and it’s coming. But ... he ... must ... wait ... for ... it.
Two years ago, McRaney, a reservist, was in Afghanistan when a mortar shell landed on his bunker, killing three civilian contractors who were with him. McRaney survived, but his brain was damaged in the explosion, diminishing his memory, ability to follow directions and process speech.
read more here
Thousands of terror war soldiers who are back home struggle with TBI
By Bill Torpy and Mark Davis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"A congressional report in February said studies indicate between 15 percent and 23 percent of the 2 million who have served in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced a TBI, which would mean 300,000 to 460,000 cases."David McRaney always considered himself a quick thinker, a problem solver who threw himself into challenges.
Now, he struggles to find the right words when talking. He starts sentences and stops in the middle. He reads a chapter, then realizes none of it has soaked in. Some days, he goes out to get the mail, then can’t remember if he brought it in. If he remembers he brought it in, he can’t remember where he put it.
The Army captain says his brain acts like an Internet dial-up connection: The information is there, and it’s coming. But ... he ... must ... wait ... for ... it.
Two years ago, McRaney, a reservist, was in Afghanistan when a mortar shell landed on his bunker, killing three civilian contractors who were with him. McRaney survived, but his brain was damaged in the explosion, diminishing his memory, ability to follow directions and process speech.
read more here
A war correspondent and veteran's reflection
A war correspondent's reflection: If I don't tell the story, who will?
April 22, 2012
By Jackie Spinner
Coming Home PA is a project spearheaded by PublicSource, a local nonprofit investigative news group, with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and other local media partners.
We were an odd trio, sitting in a hipster lounge in Dupont Circle, last November, smoking flavored tobacco, sharing war stories, oblivious to the people around us.
Joao Silva, a photographer, was still getting treatment in Washington, D.C., after stepping on a land mine in October 2010 in Afghanistan while on assignment for the New York Times. He lost both his legs. A year later, Joao was in shorts, even though it had been snowing earlier in the day, and the disco lights kept catching the metal of his prosthetic legs in a dancing twinkle that matched our mood.
Bill Putnam, a multimedia journalist and former U.S. soldier, was on his way back to Afghanistan. Putnam has gone to war now as a soldier and civilian seven times since 1996. Once again, he was putting everything else aside to cover war.
"I literally don't know anything else but this life," he said in a recent email from Afghanistan. "I don't feel fulfilled back home."
read more here
April 22, 2012
By Jackie Spinner
Coming Home PA is a project spearheaded by PublicSource, a local nonprofit investigative news group, with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and other local media partners.
We were an odd trio, sitting in a hipster lounge in Dupont Circle, last November, smoking flavored tobacco, sharing war stories, oblivious to the people around us.
Joao Silva, a photographer, was still getting treatment in Washington, D.C., after stepping on a land mine in October 2010 in Afghanistan while on assignment for the New York Times. He lost both his legs. A year later, Joao was in shorts, even though it had been snowing earlier in the day, and the disco lights kept catching the metal of his prosthetic legs in a dancing twinkle that matched our mood.
Bill Putnam, a multimedia journalist and former U.S. soldier, was on his way back to Afghanistan. Putnam has gone to war now as a soldier and civilian seven times since 1996. Once again, he was putting everything else aside to cover war.
"I literally don't know anything else but this life," he said in a recent email from Afghanistan. "I don't feel fulfilled back home."
read more here
More soldiers in the Army overall are testing positive for heroin
Opiates killed 8 Americans in Afghanistan, Army records show
By Michael Martinez,
CNN
Sat April 21, 2012
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Eight soldiers died of overdoses involving heroin, morphine or other opiates in 2010-11
56 soldiers, including the eight, were investigated for using, possessing or selling the drugs
More soldiers in the Army overall are testing positive for heroin use
The Taliban are believed to be stockpiling opium to finance their activities, U.N. reported
(CNN) -- Eight American soldiers died of overdoses involving heroin, morphine or other opiates during deployments in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011, according to U.S. Army investigative reports.
The overdoses were revealed in documents detailing how the Army investigated a total of 56 soldiers, including the eight who fell victim to overdoses, on suspicion of possessing, using or distributing heroin and other opiates.
At the same time, heroin use apparently is on the rise in the Army overall, as military statistics show that the number of soldiers testing positive for heroin has grown from 10 instances in fiscal year 2002 to 116 in fiscal year 2010.
Army officials didn't respond to repeated requests for comment on Saturday. But records from the service's Criminal Investigation Command, obtained by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch, provided glimpses into how soldiers bought drugs from Afghan juveniles, an Afghan interpreter and in one case, an employee of a Defense Department contractor, who was eventually fired.
read more here
By Michael Martinez,
CNN
Sat April 21, 2012
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Eight soldiers died of overdoses involving heroin, morphine or other opiates in 2010-11
56 soldiers, including the eight, were investigated for using, possessing or selling the drugs
More soldiers in the Army overall are testing positive for heroin use
The Taliban are believed to be stockpiling opium to finance their activities, U.N. reported
(CNN) -- Eight American soldiers died of overdoses involving heroin, morphine or other opiates during deployments in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011, according to U.S. Army investigative reports.
The overdoses were revealed in documents detailing how the Army investigated a total of 56 soldiers, including the eight who fell victim to overdoses, on suspicion of possessing, using or distributing heroin and other opiates.
At the same time, heroin use apparently is on the rise in the Army overall, as military statistics show that the number of soldiers testing positive for heroin has grown from 10 instances in fiscal year 2002 to 116 in fiscal year 2010.
Army officials didn't respond to repeated requests for comment on Saturday. But records from the service's Criminal Investigation Command, obtained by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch, provided glimpses into how soldiers bought drugs from Afghan juveniles, an Afghan interpreter and in one case, an employee of a Defense Department contractor, who was eventually fired.
read more here
Gold Star Dads grieve too!
Military dads with tragic bond share their grief
By HOWARD ALTMAN
The Tampa Tribune
Published: April 21, 2012
RUSKIN
The men in the living room at the Southern Comfort Inn Bed and Breakfast nod knowingly as they talk about things no one else fully can understand.
They are part of a small fraternity no man wants to join. They are gathered in Ruskin to share their stories and their pain, and to be with the only people who truly know what it's like.
There are about 68 million fathers in the United States. A few more than 6,000 of them have lost a child to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The six men in the living room are among that .001 percent, gathered on a cloudy Saturday by American Gold Star Mothers Inc., a service organization dedicated to helping the parents of the fallen, be it from battle, accident and even suicide.
read more here
By HOWARD ALTMAN
The Tampa Tribune
Published: April 21, 2012
RUSKIN
The men in the living room at the Southern Comfort Inn Bed and Breakfast nod knowingly as they talk about things no one else fully can understand.
They are part of a small fraternity no man wants to join. They are gathered in Ruskin to share their stories and their pain, and to be with the only people who truly know what it's like.
There are about 68 million fathers in the United States. A few more than 6,000 of them have lost a child to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The six men in the living room are among that .001 percent, gathered on a cloudy Saturday by American Gold Star Mothers Inc., a service organization dedicated to helping the parents of the fallen, be it from battle, accident and even suicide.
read more here
1 Out of 3 G.I. Deaths Are Suicides
Do you really need more evidence "resiliency training" does not work?
1 Out of 3 G.I. Deaths Are Suicides, a New U.S. Epidemic Among Veterans
Thomas Cuffein
Politics,Veterans
For every two American combatants killed by enemy action, one more dies by suicide. The Department of Defense reports that in the last 10 years 4,989 military personnel have been killed in action in Afghanistan and Iraq, while in the same period 2,293 active duty personnel have taken their own lives. American veterans of these and other wars account for 20% of U.S. suicides. The reality is that this country is now facing an epidemic of dire national security and humanitarian consequences as an increasing segment of our military population is turning to suicide.
Direct causes of this upward trend largely stem from issues of mental health which include traumatic brain injury, post traumatic stress disorder, survivor’s guilt as well as increased drug and alcohol dependency. These are often exacerbated by the transition to civilian life that removes many of the previous support networks of service life.
Economic issues are also prevalent, as veterans often find themselves in trying financial situations as they attempt to reintegrate into a civilian society with high unemployment where the few jobs available have little demand for military skills. It does not help that the while the Veteran’s Administration budget of $138 billion has almost quadrupled since the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is still woefully inadequate to serve expanding veteran numbers and requirements.
Maybe the biggest problem confronting those that need help is the continuing stigma that comes with seeking out a mental health professional. This needs to change both within the military and in society as a whole. While the number of service members that pursue mental health help has increased, the stigma against asking for help is still strong – 43% of those service members who killed themselves in 2010 did not seek assistance through official channels.
read more here
Marine’s medals stolen during car break-In
Marine’s medals stolen during car break-In
April 21, 2012
By Scott Wise KTVI
St. Louis, MO (KTVI)
The story of yet another car break-in in the area around the Gateway Arch comes with a new and sad twist. The victim, in this case, is a United States Marine, and what he has lost cannot be replaced.
Sgt. Ethan Stoeckel and his wife Kaitlin had been visiting her family in Central Illinois, and decided to visit the Arch Grounds while waiting for a plane out of St. Louis. It was April 10, around noon.
The parked in a lot right along the river, directly across from the Gateway Arch. The parking lot had an attendant. It seemed like a perfectly safe place to park, but it wasn’t. They returned to their pickup truck, where their luggage had been locked in the cab, and found everything was gone. Stoeckel’s uniforms and medals he had earned were among the stolen items, but there was more.
“I lost six guys this time,” said of the Afghanistan tour he completed last month, “and one of them was my really close friend. And I had a coin he had given me that I was gonna give my dad.”
And that wasn’t the only memento of his friendship with that buddy, a Texan named Joseph Logan.
“I had pictures on my phone that was only on my phone of my best friend and like I said, I’ll never see ‘em again,” he lamented. “We had patches made up, we will never forget patches. And I had one of eight and I’ll never see that patch again.”
read more here
April 21, 2012
By Scott Wise KTVI
St. Louis, MO (KTVI)
The story of yet another car break-in in the area around the Gateway Arch comes with a new and sad twist. The victim, in this case, is a United States Marine, and what he has lost cannot be replaced.
Sgt. Ethan Stoeckel and his wife Kaitlin had been visiting her family in Central Illinois, and decided to visit the Arch Grounds while waiting for a plane out of St. Louis. It was April 10, around noon.
The parked in a lot right along the river, directly across from the Gateway Arch. The parking lot had an attendant. It seemed like a perfectly safe place to park, but it wasn’t. They returned to their pickup truck, where their luggage had been locked in the cab, and found everything was gone. Stoeckel’s uniforms and medals he had earned were among the stolen items, but there was more.
“I lost six guys this time,” said of the Afghanistan tour he completed last month, “and one of them was my really close friend. And I had a coin he had given me that I was gonna give my dad.”
And that wasn’t the only memento of his friendship with that buddy, a Texan named Joseph Logan.
“I had pictures on my phone that was only on my phone of my best friend and like I said, I’ll never see ‘em again,” he lamented. “We had patches made up, we will never forget patches. And I had one of eight and I’ll never see that patch again.”
read more here
Marine kills another Marine near D.C. barracks
Marine kills another Marine near D.C. barracks, police say
By Allison Klein and Clarence Williams
Published: April 21
One Marine allegedly stabbed another Marine to death early Saturday on Capitol Hill’s Barracks Row, near the Marine Barracks and the residence of the Marine commandant.
The Marines got into a fight that began when the suspect called the victim an anti-gay slur, police said.
After the stabbing, Marine guards stationed nearby subdued the suspect and handed him over to D.C. police.
By Allison Klein and Clarence Williams
Published: April 21
One Marine allegedly stabbed another Marine to death early Saturday on Capitol Hill’s Barracks Row, near the Marine Barracks and the residence of the Marine commandant.
The Marines got into a fight that began when the suspect called the victim an anti-gay slur, police said.
After the stabbing, Marine guards stationed nearby subdued the suspect and handed him over to D.C. police.
Phillip Bushong, 23, who was based at Camp Lejeune, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
read more here
Veterans tell their stories of war in 10-part radio series
Veterans tell their stories of war in 10-part radio series
BY HANNAH KOHUT Correspondent
April 20, 2012
Veterans from World War II and wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan are sharing their war stories as part of a new 10-part radio series at St. Xavier University dubbed “Veteran Matters.”
Producer Peter Kreten said the veterans’ experiences are “very much” a part of our American history.
“You can hear honest experiences,” Kreten said. “You’re going to hear stories about being a sailor on the USS Bunker Hill; about Korea and running away from aircraft fire; and of the experiences from Army nurses.”
One of those nurses, 91-year-old Joan Schechner, of Evergreen Park, said that participating in the radio program was “very exciting.”
“We took care of soldiers in Iwo Jima and Okinawa,” Schechner said. “In Iwo Jima, the hospital was just a tent put together with dirt floors and no cots. We prepared the patients to go in for surgery, and penicillin was only about a year old at the time, and we were able to give penicillin shots.
“I spent my 25th birthday in Okinawa, and my grandson had his 25th birthday in Afghanistan,” Schechner said. “It was wonderful being in the service; I’d do the same thing again today.”
Some of the oral histories are from more recent wars.
read more here
BY HANNAH KOHUT Correspondent
April 20, 2012
Veterans from World War II and wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan are sharing their war stories as part of a new 10-part radio series at St. Xavier University dubbed “Veteran Matters.”
Producer Peter Kreten said the veterans’ experiences are “very much” a part of our American history.
“You can hear honest experiences,” Kreten said. “You’re going to hear stories about being a sailor on the USS Bunker Hill; about Korea and running away from aircraft fire; and of the experiences from Army nurses.”
One of those nurses, 91-year-old Joan Schechner, of Evergreen Park, said that participating in the radio program was “very exciting.”
“We took care of soldiers in Iwo Jima and Okinawa,” Schechner said. “In Iwo Jima, the hospital was just a tent put together with dirt floors and no cots. We prepared the patients to go in for surgery, and penicillin was only about a year old at the time, and we were able to give penicillin shots.
“I spent my 25th birthday in Okinawa, and my grandson had his 25th birthday in Afghanistan,” Schechner said. “It was wonderful being in the service; I’d do the same thing again today.”
Some of the oral histories are from more recent wars.
read more here
Killing in war linked with suicidal thoughts, duh
This shocker came from college research?
Mind boggling that they understand so little after so long. Do they ever read research already done? One other cause of a survivor wanting to die is guilt when they believe they should have died instead. Is this the next thing they'll feel the need to put out a press release over?
“We want clinicians and suicide prevention coordinators to be aware that in analyzing a veteran’s risk of suicide, killing in combat is an additional factor that they may or may not be aware of.” Shira Maguen, a clinical psychologist at SFVAMC and an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCSF.
Mind boggling that they understand so little after so long. Do they ever read research already done? One other cause of a survivor wanting to die is guilt when they believe they should have died instead. Is this the next thing they'll feel the need to put out a press release over?
Killing in war linked with suicidal thoughts among Vietnam veterans
University of California at San Francisco
April 21, 2012
The experience of killing in war was strongly associated with thoughts of suicide, in a study of Vietnam-era veterans led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
The scientists found that veterans with more experiences involving killing were twice as likely to have reported suicidal thoughts as veterans who had fewer or no experiences.
To evaluate the experience of killing, the authors created four variables – killing enemy combatants, killing prisoners, killing civilians in general and killing or injuring women, children or the elderly. For each veteran, they combined those variables into a single composite measure. The higher the composite score, the greater the likelihood that a veteran had thought about suicide.
read more here
Former POWs reject Utah man’s claims of being one of them
Former POWs reject Utah man’s claims
Stolen valor?
A nonprofit that investigates vets’ claims of service says the Utah man is not on a Department of Defense list of POWs.
By Kristen Moulton
The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Apr 20 2012
POWs from the Vietnam War contend that Dave Groves, a West Jordan man honored last week by the Veterans Administration and years ago by the University of Utah, was never held captive in Vietnam.
Groves does not appear on a database of Department of Defense Vietnam-era POWs, compiled from military records.
"He’s a typical liar," said Mike McGrath, historian of Nam-Pow, a nonprofit organization of Vietnam prisoners of war. "There are 540 of us still alive from Vietnam, and we have 3,000 wannabees who want to be us."
Groves, who has hired an attorney after a week of online challenges to his truthfulness, insists he was a POW who for unexplained reasons does not appear in the Pentagon’s database.
read more here
A nonprofit that investigates vets’ claims of service says the Utah man is not on a Department of Defense list of POWs.
By Kristen Moulton
The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Apr 20 2012
POWs from the Vietnam War contend that Dave Groves, a West Jordan man honored last week by the Veterans Administration and years ago by the University of Utah, was never held captive in Vietnam.
(Al Hartmann The Salt Lake Tribune) Dave Groves, who claims he was captured and held as a POW in the Vietnam war, shakes the hands of POWs from World War II during a POW appreciation luncheon Friday, April 13, in Salt Lake City. Some now question Groves' account.
Groves does not appear on a database of Department of Defense Vietnam-era POWs, compiled from military records.
"He’s a typical liar," said Mike McGrath, historian of Nam-Pow, a nonprofit organization of Vietnam prisoners of war. "There are 540 of us still alive from Vietnam, and we have 3,000 wannabees who want to be us."
Groves, who has hired an attorney after a week of online challenges to his truthfulness, insists he was a POW who for unexplained reasons does not appear in the Pentagon’s database.
read more here
Vietnam Veteran remembers "Five minutes later, he was dead"
When you think about what they go through during war, never forget what they have to remember afterwards.
Vietnam War Veteran Awarded Bronze Star for Valor
Updated: Friday, 20 Apr 2012
By BETH PARKER/myfoxdc
WASHINGTON - Great sacrifice was remembered Friday on the National Mall. About 100 people gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall. One of them was honored for a brave act 40 years ago.
When Tony Martinez looks at the wall, he sees himself.
“My name should be there, not his,” he says.
In 1970, Martinez was an 18-year-old serving in a village in Vietnam. Over breakfast, his friend Joe Billy McNett asked him to trade duties for the day. That made McNett the first man on patrol.
“We had just shared a meal that morning,” says Martinez. “He showed me some pictures of his family and we were laughing about the old times back in basic. Five minutes later, he was dead.”
read more here
Saturday, April 21, 2012
D-Day 101st vet beaten, wife killed in robbery
D-Day 101st vet beaten, wife killed in robbery
By Philip Grey -
The (Clarksville, Tenn.) Leaf-Chronicle
Posted : Saturday Apr 21, 2012
The 101st Airborne Division Association is asking its members and other Screaming Eagles veterans to step up and help one of their own — a 90-year-old D-Day veteran who nearly died as a result of a brutal home invasion last month.
Bob Strait of Tulsa, Okla., was hospitalized after a vicious March 14 robbery that killed his wife, 85-year-old Nancy Strait. She was beaten and raped in the attack.
The couple, who met on a blind date on Thanksgiving Day 1946, had been married for 65 years.
Police have one suspect in custody, but they believe as many as four others took part in the home invasion.
One of the Strait’s daughters, Lenore Gay, said the investigation is ongoing, but she is unhappy that Tulsa police have mustered nowhere near the resources in her parents’ case as those applied to a nationally reported shooting spree in Tulsa that occurred at around the same time.
read more here
original post
WWII veteran in hospital after being attacked, wife was killed
By Philip Grey -
The (Clarksville, Tenn.) Leaf-Chronicle
Posted : Saturday Apr 21, 2012
The 101st Airborne Division Association is asking its members and other Screaming Eagles veterans to step up and help one of their own — a 90-year-old D-Day veteran who nearly died as a result of a brutal home invasion last month.
Bob Strait of Tulsa, Okla., was hospitalized after a vicious March 14 robbery that killed his wife, 85-year-old Nancy Strait. She was beaten and raped in the attack.
The couple, who met on a blind date on Thanksgiving Day 1946, had been married for 65 years.
Police have one suspect in custody, but they believe as many as four others took part in the home invasion.
TO DONATE Send checks to the Nancy Strait and Bob Strait Support Trust, c/o Arvest Bank, Tulsa Branch, 502 S. Main St., Tulsa, OK 74103. Please include on the check’s memo line that is for the Straits’ account.
One of the Strait’s daughters, Lenore Gay, said the investigation is ongoing, but she is unhappy that Tulsa police have mustered nowhere near the resources in her parents’ case as those applied to a nationally reported shooting spree in Tulsa that occurred at around the same time.
read more here
original post
WWII veteran in hospital after being attacked, wife was killed
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)