Soldier: "We Didn't Expect Much, Not Like This"
WLTX News
Dec 27, 2012
Written by
Steven Dial
Columbia, SC (WLTX) - The Christmas holiday is a time that many people spend with family. However, getting home to see family can be hard for some of the soldiers stationed at Ft. Jackson.
With that in mind, a local organization donated their time and made a home made old fashioned spaghetti dinner.
"It's just to thank them," said Mike Mancari with the Mother Teresa Knights of Columbus Assemblies.
For the men and women who protect our country, there's no such thing as a Christmas break.
"We didn't expect much, not like this," said Sergio Mendez.
About 200 Soldiers at Ft. Jackson didn't get to go home for Christmas, so volunteers with the Mother Theresa Knights of Columbus brought home to them.
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Friday, December 28, 2012
US Sailors exposed to radiation after Japan earthquake
US Sailors Sue Japan Utility in Radiation Exposure
Dec 28, 2012
Stars and Stripes
by Matthew M. Burke
SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan -- Eight sailors from the USS Ronald Reagan are suing Japan’s nationalized Tokyo Electric Power Co., claiming it lied about dangers from a radiation leak when they helped out after last year’s nuclear plant disaster and that they will almost certainly die prematurely as a result.
Their complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, seeks a jury trial and damages of $40 million each for being “rendered infirm” and their bodies being “poisoned” by radiation. It was filed on behalf of Lindsay Cooper, James Sutton, Kim Gieseking, Charles Yarris, Robert Miller, Christopher Bittner, Eric Membrila and Judy Goodwin.
Within days of the March 11, 2011, earthquake, tsunami and subsequent radiation leak from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, the USS Ronald Reagan was aiding in the search for survivors and bodies from just off Japan’s devastated east coast.
Six of the eight sailors worked on the flight deck during the operation and two worked in the air contamination department. Gieseking is also suing on behalf of her daughter, Autumn, who was born shortly after the deployment.
read more here
Dec 28, 2012
Stars and Stripes
by Matthew M. Burke
SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan -- Eight sailors from the USS Ronald Reagan are suing Japan’s nationalized Tokyo Electric Power Co., claiming it lied about dangers from a radiation leak when they helped out after last year’s nuclear plant disaster and that they will almost certainly die prematurely as a result.
Their complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, seeks a jury trial and damages of $40 million each for being “rendered infirm” and their bodies being “poisoned” by radiation. It was filed on behalf of Lindsay Cooper, James Sutton, Kim Gieseking, Charles Yarris, Robert Miller, Christopher Bittner, Eric Membrila and Judy Goodwin.
Within days of the March 11, 2011, earthquake, tsunami and subsequent radiation leak from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, the USS Ronald Reagan was aiding in the search for survivors and bodies from just off Japan’s devastated east coast.
Six of the eight sailors worked on the flight deck during the operation and two worked in the air contamination department. Gieseking is also suing on behalf of her daughter, Autumn, who was born shortly after the deployment.
read more here
Murder Trial Set For February In Brutal Slaying Of Camp Pendleton Marine
Murder Trial Set For February In Brutal Slaying Of Camp Pendleton Marine
KPBS
Friday, December 28, 2012
By Beth Ford Roth
Camp Pendleton Marine Lance Cpl. Darren Evans will face court-martial in February for the premeditated murder of his roommate, 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Mario Arias.
A Marine Corps spokesman told Camp Pendleton Patch the trial will begin on February 4.
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KPBS
Friday, December 28, 2012
By Beth Ford Roth
Camp Pendleton Marine Lance Cpl. Darren Evans will face court-martial in February for the premeditated murder of his roommate, 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Mario Arias.
A Marine Corps spokesman told Camp Pendleton Patch the trial will begin on February 4.
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A newspaper exposes the addresses of its local gun owners
This country has gone gun crazy! Gun owners ran to the store to buy assault weapons because they were "afraid" they would stop selling them. Did that makes sense? Why would anyone want one so badly that it didn't matter what it was designed for and how it has been used way too many times? Then the NRA pushes for teachers to take guns to school? They think more guns is the answer but didn't say much about people shopping at a mall, going to a movie and responding to put out a fire. Well, no I have to take that back since they also thought the answer for those murders was more guns too. Since when was it mandatory to have to have a gun to be a teacher or administrator?
On the flip side we have a newspaper treating legal gun owners like criminals when the names and addresses of gun owners was published and taken from the county clerk's office. In other words, the legal gun owners were outed but they didn't do a damn thing about illegal gun owners. Since when is it a crime to own a gun?
Like I keep pointing out, I know a lot of gun owners and feel safe with them because they know how to use them and respect them. That is the way most gun owners are. Now legal gun owners are being treated like criminals? This is bad all the way around.
On the flip side we have a newspaper treating legal gun owners like criminals when the names and addresses of gun owners was published and taken from the county clerk's office. In other words, the legal gun owners were outed but they didn't do a damn thing about illegal gun owners. Since when is it a crime to own a gun?
Like I keep pointing out, I know a lot of gun owners and feel safe with them because they know how to use them and respect them. That is the way most gun owners are. Now legal gun owners are being treated like criminals? This is bad all the way around.
Even this bleeding-heart liberal believes gun owners have a right to privacy
A newspaper exposes the addresses of its local gun owners — which violates our rights as much as shoddy gun laws
BY MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS
Salon.com
DEC 28, 2012
In the two weeks since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary, much has been written and said about our national obsession with guns – and what do about it. But a suburban New York newspaper’s unorthodox take on the issue has created a brand-new controversy over guns, rights and privacy.
Earlier this week, the White Plains Journal News ran a story with the provocative title “The Gun Owner Next Door: What You Don’t Know About the Weapons in Your Neighborhood.” The story, written by Dwight R. Worley, made few bones about its slant, opening with the chilling details of the shooting murder of a Katona woman last spring.
But it wasn’t the story that raised eyebrows. It was the revelation that after a Freedom of Information request, “Westchester provided the names and addresses of the county’s 16,616 active permit holders” to the paper. And, even worse, its online version featured an interactive map of all the “pistol permits registered with the Westchester County Clerk’s Office,” along with the invitation to “zoom in and out for more information and click on a dot to see details of a permit.” The Journal did also mention, in an editor’s note, that writer Dwight R. Worley owns a .357 Magnum. It didn’t, however, include his New York City address.
The map, thickly dotted with pins, is certainly a stunner to anyone who’s opposed to guns. And of course, inevitably, an irate blogger — and gun owner — swiftly retaliated by publishing the home addresses of the newspaper’s staff. He told CNN Thursday, “I felt they were using this to harass gun owners. So I harassed them back.” The map has also generated a deluge of polarizing responses. On Facebook, one commenter called it “disgusting, just disgusting — and you hacks should be ashamed of what you pass for ‘journalism,’” while another argued, “If someone has a right to a gun, do we not have a right to know if someone has a gun?” Well, do we? And just because a newspaper can do something, does it mean that it should?
read more here
Vietnam Veteran, Senator Jim Webb, no plans to rest
No Rest for Jim Webb
Dec 27, 2012
The Virginian-Pilot
by Bill Bartel
Jim Webb may be walking away after a single term in the U.S. Senate, but that doesn't mean he's exiting public life for good.
And the 66-year-old is not going into retirement.
"I will be working. Trust me," he said in a recent interview in the wood-paneled conference room of his Capitol Hill office.
"My situation is different than most people up here. I didn't come out of a law firm. There isn't a structure that I can easily go back into. But it's a very healthy thing, at least from the way my career has played itself out, to step out every now and then and just think about things."
Sense of Honor
A Country Such As This
Lost Soldiers
Emperor's General
Dec 27, 2012
The Virginian-Pilot
by Bill Bartel
Webb's most praised Senate achievement was a new GI Bill that passed Congress 18 months after he took office. The legislation dramatically improved education and related benefits for veterans. To date, more than 800,000 former service members have used the benefits.
Jim Webb may be walking away after a single term in the U.S. Senate, but that doesn't mean he's exiting public life for good.
And the 66-year-old is not going into retirement.
"I will be working. Trust me," he said in a recent interview in the wood-paneled conference room of his Capitol Hill office.
"My situation is different than most people up here. I didn't come out of a law firm. There isn't a structure that I can easily go back into. But it's a very healthy thing, at least from the way my career has played itself out, to step out every now and then and just think about things."
The victory was the latest chapter in a career that began in 1969 in the Marines. As a lieutenant, Webb served in Vietnam, earning the Navy Cross, a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts.Born Fighting
He worked on the staff of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs after law school, and he served during the Reagan administration as an undersecretary of defense and Secretary of the Navy.
His books, both fiction and nonfiction, include the critically acclaimed novel "Fields of Fire," which is based on his wartime experiences. He's also won an Emmy as a documentary filmmaker.
read more here
Sense of Honor
A Country Such As This
Lost Soldiers
Emperor's General
Fallen SEAL Met Challenge, Mentor Says
Fallen SEAL Met Challenge, Mentor Says
Dec 27, 2012
The Virginian-Pilot
by Dianna Cahn
The last time John Armato saw his friend and triathlon partner Job Price, the two men went on a training run through the forest, then jumped into a creek and continued to run until it got too deep and they shifted to swimming.
That day last summer in Pennsylvania, they ran and swam and ran and swam some more, having what Armato -- 23 years Price's senior -- called "a really good time challenging one another."
A week later, Price left on deployment to Uruzgan province in northern Afghanistan, where he was commanding a team of SEALs based in Virginia Beach.
"One of the last things we talked about had to do with how proud he was of the men he was leading," Armato said. "He had just a tremendous amount of admiration (for them)."
Price, 42, a Navy commander, died Saturday in what the Defense Department described as "a noncombat-related injury." The Associated Press and other news agencies reported that his death was being investigated as a possible suicide.
Famously secretive, the SEALs don't talk about their missions -- or their losses. But Armato, contacted in Price's hometown of Pottstown, Pa., where his parents still live, described watching a talented young man grow into a dedicated leader.
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Seal Commander's death in Afghansitan
Dec 27, 2012
The Virginian-Pilot
by Dianna Cahn
The last time John Armato saw his friend and triathlon partner Job Price, the two men went on a training run through the forest, then jumped into a creek and continued to run until it got too deep and they shifted to swimming.
That day last summer in Pennsylvania, they ran and swam and ran and swam some more, having what Armato -- 23 years Price's senior -- called "a really good time challenging one another."
A week later, Price left on deployment to Uruzgan province in northern Afghanistan, where he was commanding a team of SEALs based in Virginia Beach.
"One of the last things we talked about had to do with how proud he was of the men he was leading," Armato said. "He had just a tremendous amount of admiration (for them)."
Price, 42, a Navy commander, died Saturday in what the Defense Department described as "a noncombat-related injury." The Associated Press and other news agencies reported that his death was being investigated as a possible suicide.
Famously secretive, the SEALs don't talk about their missions -- or their losses. But Armato, contacted in Price's hometown of Pottstown, Pa., where his parents still live, described watching a talented young man grow into a dedicated leader.
read more here
Seal Commander's death in Afghansitan
Vietnam veteran with cancer finally gets justice from VA
Jack Bogrett's experience with cancer and the VA takes a turn for the better
Published: Thursday, December 27, 2012
By Mike Francis
The Oregonian
Jack Bogrett's life has changed dramatically for the better since he was profiled in a June 10 story about the frustrations of veterans who live far from Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers.
Back then, his colon cancer seemed to be spreading, he was out of pocket for thousands of dollars of medical charges he incurred outside the VA system, and his history with the Portland VA Medical Center was marked by suddenly canceled appointments, misunderstandings and communications glitches.
Today, the 63-year-old Vietnam vet is getting gold-plated treatment from the VA, he's been reimbursed for more than $16,000 of medical expenses and, most important, his cancer has been beaten back to the point he dares to use the word "cured."
"I haven't felt this good since 2000," he said. "I'm very fortunate."
read more here
Published: Thursday, December 27, 2012
By Mike Francis
The Oregonian
Jack Bogrett's life has changed dramatically for the better since he was profiled in a June 10 story about the frustrations of veterans who live far from Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers.
Back then, his colon cancer seemed to be spreading, he was out of pocket for thousands of dollars of medical charges he incurred outside the VA system, and his history with the Portland VA Medical Center was marked by suddenly canceled appointments, misunderstandings and communications glitches.
Today, the 63-year-old Vietnam vet is getting gold-plated treatment from the VA, he's been reimbursed for more than $16,000 of medical expenses and, most important, his cancer has been beaten back to the point he dares to use the word "cured."
"I haven't felt this good since 2000," he said. "I'm very fortunate."
read more here
Accused killer described PTSD emotional wounds after war
Accused killer described emotional wounds after war
CBS
by Diane Moca
Story Created: Dec 27, 2012
MILWAUKEE -- As questions continue to swirl around what would motivate Benjamin Sebena to allegedly stalk and kill his wife Jennifer on Christmas Eve, the Wauwatosa Police Chief says issues related to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) were mentioned during officer interviews with the defendant.
In an informational video with graphic pictures released by the Elmbrook Church in Brookfield in 2010, Ben Sebena reveals anxieties he suffered after returning from two tours of duty in Iraq.
In the church video, Ben says he shared his painful memories to help other veterans.
"I've been to the dark places, and I want to help bring them to the light," he says after describing the day in 2005 when he was changed forever after he nearly lost his life and watched a friend die, one of 50 deaths of fellow soldiers he says he witnessed.
"A mortar round came down and dropped right behind him. It killed him instantly, and the rest of the schrapnel came and hit me," explained Ben. "I looked down at my knee, and my pants were soaked in blood. And I could see my knee cap. My arm is drooping off my body and holding on by a couple tendons."
In the church video, Ben describes his physical struggle to walk again and the emotional difficulties he faced after the attack -- even when he was attending church back at home.
read more here
Marine arrested in shooting of police officer wife
CBS
by Diane Moca
Story Created: Dec 27, 2012
MILWAUKEE -- As questions continue to swirl around what would motivate Benjamin Sebena to allegedly stalk and kill his wife Jennifer on Christmas Eve, the Wauwatosa Police Chief says issues related to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) were mentioned during officer interviews with the defendant.
In an informational video with graphic pictures released by the Elmbrook Church in Brookfield in 2010, Ben Sebena reveals anxieties he suffered after returning from two tours of duty in Iraq.
In the church video, Ben says he shared his painful memories to help other veterans.
"I've been to the dark places, and I want to help bring them to the light," he says after describing the day in 2005 when he was changed forever after he nearly lost his life and watched a friend die, one of 50 deaths of fellow soldiers he says he witnessed.
"A mortar round came down and dropped right behind him. It killed him instantly, and the rest of the schrapnel came and hit me," explained Ben. "I looked down at my knee, and my pants were soaked in blood. And I could see my knee cap. My arm is drooping off my body and holding on by a couple tendons."
In the church video, Ben describes his physical struggle to walk again and the emotional difficulties he faced after the attack -- even when he was attending church back at home.
read more here
Marine arrested in shooting of police officer wife
Marine and Soldier killed in car crash
A broken-hearted fiance announced just before the crash, she's having a baby boy.
Marine among two men killed in west Wichita crash
By Amy Renee Leiker
The Wichita Eagle
Published Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012
A U.S. Marine lance corporal home on leave for Christmas was one of two young men killed in a single-car crash Thursday morning in west Wichita.
Thomas Krausch described his son, Devan, as outgoing, “just an all-around good kid” who was well-loved by his family and friends.
“It seemed like he would always be the one to help somebody else,” Thomas Krausch said. “He made his mom and I very proud.”
Wichita police say Devan M. Krausch, 22, was riding in a 2005 Chrysler 300 sedan with 21-year-old Marcus W. McClellan when the car struck a culvert beside 13th Street about 2:30 a.m. Thursday. The car became airborne and struck a power pole and utility lines at 13th and Liberty, near 135th Street West, Wichita police Capt. John Speer said.
The men were westbound on 13th Street at the time of the crash.
Krausch, who was thrown from the vehicle, died after being taken to Via Christi Hospital on St. Francis.
McClellan died at the scene.
Both men were Wichita residents.
Thomas Krausch said his son, a 2008 Northwest High School graduate, was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif. He had been home for just a few days.
McClellan’s family did not immediately respond to The Eagle’s request for an interview Thursday night.
The 21-year-old had attended both Bishop Carroll High School and Bethel College, according to his Facebook page. McClellan also is listed as a member of the U.S. Army on the social networking site.
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Marine Arrested in Shooting of Police Officer Wife on Christmas Eve
Marine Arrested in Shooting of Police Officer Wife on Christmas Eve
Dec. 27, 2012
The body of Officer Jennifer Sebena, 30, was found by fellow officers of the Wauwatosa, Wisc., police department after she failed to respond to radio calls. She was shot several times, police said.
Authorities released little information on her killing, but said that her husband, Benjamin Sebena, is in custody at the Milwaukee County Jail. He is being held on a tentative charge of first-degree intentional homicide, but has not been formally charged, officials said.
"He is in custody, and we're waiting on paperwork to be brought down to this office," said Mia Williams, clerical assistant at Milwaukee's District Attorney's Office.
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Ben Sebena is a "decorated U.S. Marine who served two tours in Iraq before suffering severe arm and leg injuries in a mortar attack," according to the Associated PressBy ASHLEY JENNINGS
Dec. 27, 2012
ABC/APA decorated Marine has been arrested in connection with the shooting death of his police officer wife while she was on patrol during Christmas eve, officials said today.
Benjamin Sebena, left, the husband of Jennifer L. Sebena, right, a police officer who was fatally shot on Christmas Eve while patrolling in suburban Milwaukee has been arrested in connection with her death.
The body of Officer Jennifer Sebena, 30, was found by fellow officers of the Wauwatosa, Wisc., police department after she failed to respond to radio calls. She was shot several times, police said.
Authorities released little information on her killing, but said that her husband, Benjamin Sebena, is in custody at the Milwaukee County Jail. He is being held on a tentative charge of first-degree intentional homicide, but has not been formally charged, officials said.
"He is in custody, and we're waiting on paperwork to be brought down to this office," said Mia Williams, clerical assistant at Milwaukee's District Attorney's Office.
read more here
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