Joint Base Lewis McChord soldier had "nothing left to lose" before acid attack on judge

When you read the headline, it doesn't come close enough to telling the rest of the story.

Former soldier charged in acid attack on Thurston County judge
The Olympian
Jeremy Pawloski
Staff Writer
Published: July 26, 2013

Prosecutors have charged a former soldier at Joint Base Lewis-McChord with throwing sulfuric acid at Thurston County District Judge Michael “Brett” Buckley’s face during a Sept. 10 attack at the judge’s Olympia home.

Michael Edward Martin, 33, already is in custody at a federal detention center, awaiting sentencing after he pleaded guilty to threatening to kill a Judge Advocate General military prosecutor in a separate case. On Friday, Thurston County prosecutors charged Martin with first-degree assault and first-degree malicious mischief in connection with the attack on Judge Buckley.

The former soldier apparently blamed the judge’s prior decision to issue a restraining order against him for ending his military career.

“He felt like his life was falling apart, and he was looking for others to blame,” Andrew Toynbee, Thurston County chief criminal deputy prosecuting attorney, said Friday.

Prosecutors believe Martin threw battery acid in Buckley’s face the evening of Sept. 10 after Buckley answered a knock on his door. Buckley was treated at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. He suffered minor injuries in the 9:25 p.m. attack.

In a response to the court ruling, the former girlfriend stated she feared Martin had “nothing left to lose” because of proceedings taking place to remove him from the military. “I do fear that this makes him even more of a threat to me and others,” she wrote in March 2012.

Johnstone also discovered an entry on Martin’s Facebook page on June 29, 2012, that warned Joint Base Lewis-McChord personnel whom he believed had wronged him to “stay lookin over ur shouler cuz if you dont u might find ur damn face melting of ur (expletive) skulls.”

Toynbee said Friday that if Martin is found guilty of the assault and malicious mischief charges related to Buckley’s attack, he could face a 10-year prison sentence. Toynbee added that there are several potential aggravating factors that could add more years to the sentence.
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Vietnam veteran's mule-powered journey to visit father's grave ends sadly

Mich. veteran's mule-powered journey to visit father's grave ends sadly
Truck rear-ends wagon, injuring man, killing mules
JC Online
Written by Mikel Livingston
Jul. 26, 2013

A Vietnam veteran’s 1,000-mile trek to visit his father’s grave — a journey that took him through the Clinton County town of Colfax on May 24 and 25 — took a sad turn this week.

Since May 1, 68-year-old Charlie Peters has been traveling by a wagon pulled by a pair of mules from his home in Owosso, Mich., to the grave of R.B. Peters in Okemah, Okla.

Peters had been hoping to reach the grave site next week, to thank his father in person for the elder Peters’ service in World War II.

But on Wednesday night, Peters’ wagon was rear-ended by a truck in a late night accident on Highway 64 in Ozark, Ark. Peters suffered two broken ribs.

According to various media reports from that area, one of the mules died at the scene and another died overnight at a nearby veterinary hospital.

Carol Peters, Charlie Peters’ daughter, said her father was traveling back to Owosso by car Friday, along with his son.
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Are veterans men or mice?

Are veterans men or mice?
De-tour Combat PTSD Survivor's Guide
Kathie Costos
July 27, 2013

There have been many reports of researchers tackling PTSD using mice. Mice? Yes, mice. Now they are implanting false memories in mice as if that has anything to do with being a veteran with PTSD. "The technique could lead to treatments for phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder in humans."

While the report comes out of Australia, they are doing it here in the US as well, among many other stupid mice tricks that would make even David Letterman blush.

While some researchers have done good work, especially with the brain scans of PTSD veterans along with showing the benefits of the holistic approach addressing the spirituality of veterans, not much else new has come out over the last decade.

That sends chills down the spines of researchers around the world looking toward the US for guidance. They are now sure after over 40 years of mind-numbing money being wasted we are still not using what works. We're seeing the results of our failures in the rise of military suicides, multiple attempted suicides within the military and as veterans go without proper care.
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Only family showing up at Vietnam veteran Kay Lindemann's funeral was his dog

Beloved dog was 'only family' of Puyallup vet laid to rest
My Northwest.com
BY TIM HAECK
July 25, 2013

When Vietnam veteran Kay Lindemann of Puyallup was laid to rest at Tahoma National Cemetary Thursday, almost nobody noticed. No family was on hand, just his constant companion, his beloved dog "Buzzard." 

(Tim Haeck/KIRO Radio photo)

When Vietnam veteran Kay Lindemann of Puyallup was laid to rest at Tahoma National Cemetery Thursday, almost nobody noticed. No family was on hand, just his constant companion, his beloved dog "Buzzard."

As a young Marine, Lindemann was wounded in Vietnam and spent the rest of his life getting treatment for complications from his injuries. Roncy Roehm runs Canyon Pet Lodge and she remembers the first time she took care of Buzzard.

"We had to pick him up the first time we met him at a car dealership because his "father" had a medical episode," she recalled. His "father," Kay Lindemann, drove around in a Hummer with a place for Buzzard in the back seat.

"Kay took Buzzard everywhere with him, in fact one time Kay told me he preferred his dog over people. It was just him and his dog."

Lindemann often needed medical treatment and relied on Roehm for doggie day care.
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Texas Marine recognized for valor in Afghanistan

Texas Marine recognized for valor in Afghanistan
DVIDS
2nd Marine Logistics Group
Story by Cpl. Paul Peterson
July 23, 2013

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan - The distinguished heroism and life-saving actions of a Marine from Hallsville, Texas, earned him the thankful appreciation of his fellow servicemembers during an award ceremony here, July 23.

Lance Cpl. Joel T. Murray, an engineer heavy equipment operator with Combat Logistics Company, Combat Logistics Regiment 2, Regional Command (Southwest), received the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with “V” device in recognition of his “heroic achievement” during the defense of Forward Operating Base Shir Ghazi in the Helmand province.
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Sgt. Richard Marshall passed away after being wounded in Iraq

Soldier, Oklahoma Native Dies Of Heart Attack Years After Injury In Iraq
News On 6
Tess Maune
Posted: Jul 25, 2013

OKMULGEE, Oklahoma - Sgt. Richard Marshall was severely injured by a roadside bomb in 2007.

The bomb had killed three of his fellow soldiers, but Marshall somehow managed to kick open the door of his humvee to let the other survivors know he was alive.

He'd show the same fighting spirit for the next six years.

Marshall was born to be a soldier.

"It's our family duty, it seems, to serve our country," said Marshall's cousin, William Lowe.

Lowe said Marshall was serving his country proudly during his third tour of duty in Iraq, when he volunteered to go on a routine patrol.

That's when Marshall's humvee was hit by a roadside bomb.

"My mother calls me and says, 'Hey, Richard has been severely hurt,'" Lowe said.

Marshall needed open heart surgery immediately after the explosion in Baghdad. He survived the attack and was eventually sent back to his home in Alabama, still ready to fight.

"He was pretty adamant about staying in the Army, and I know he gave it his best efforts to even serve after he was injured, but his health just wore him," Lowe said.

So, instead of the military life, Marshall settled into his most important roles: that of Dad, to Autumn and Jalen, and husband to Brittany.
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Motorcycle riders show support for Army veteran paralyzed from the neck down

Riders show support for Army veteran paralyzed from the neck down
News 12 at 11 o'clock
By: Meredith Anderson
July 26, 2013

Chris Allison (WRDW-TV)

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW) -- The local motorcycle community is giving back to a man who gave so much.

An Army veteran who then went into the Coast Guard is visiting Augusta, but not because he wants to. Now, a group of riders are making him feel at home.

He cannot move, but Chris Allison's story will move you.

"He has two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star," explained his wife, Sharon Allison. "He was a rescue swimmer, he saved many lives."

He cannot talk, so his wife will talk for him.

"We're practically newlyweds. We were married, it was two months," she said. "Then was out on his motorcycle one day and a woman hit him."

A month or so after the accident in Douglasville, he ended up at the Augusta VA hours from home.

Sharon has been the only one by his side since he came here until Thursday night.

"I ride with the Christian Motorcycle Association," said David Kiser. "It's one of the things God has called us to do."
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Ty M. Carter to receive Medal of Honor for actions in Afghanistan

Ty M. Carter to receive Medal of Honor for actions in Afghanistan
Stars and Stripes
By Patrick Dickson
Published: July 26, 2013

Staff Sgt. Ty Carter, part of the White Platoon fire team, 8-1 Cavalry, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, provides overwatch on a road near Dahla Dam, Afghanistan, in July 2012.
U.S. ARMY

WASHINGTON — The White House announced late Friday that Army Staff Sgt. Ty M. Carter will be awarded the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry for his service at Combat Outpost Keating in Afghanistan.

On Aug. 26, President Barack Obama will award Carter the Medal of Honor for his courageous actions while serving as a cavalry scout with the 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, during combat operations in Kamdesh district, Nuristan province, Afghanistan on Oct. 3, 2009, according to a White House news release. He fought with Army Staff Sgt. Clinton Romesha, who was awarded the Medal of Honor in January.

Carter will be the fifth living recipient of the Medal of Honor for actions in Afghanistan. He and his family will join the President at the White House to commemorate his example of selfless service.

COP Keating was a company-sized outpost in Nuristan, situated at the bottom of a constricted, bowl-shaped valley at the confluence of the Kushtowz and Landay Sin rivers.
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Suicidal veteran, Los Banos police in two-hour standoff

Suicidal veteran, Los Banos police in two-hour standoff
Merced Sun Star
Corey Pride
Published: July 27, 2013

GENE LIEB/glieb@losbanosenterprise.com Los Banos Police Chief Gary Brizzee, pointing, gives direction to Sgt. Zina Holden while other officers keep watch on a house on Lombardy Court.
LOS BANOS ENTERPRISE

LOS BANOS — A suicidal man with a gun had a more than two-hour standoff with police Thursday afternoon.

The man, whose age is unknown and identity is being withheld, surrendered to police and was taken to a Veterans Administration hospital for treatment.

Cmdr. Ray Reyna Jr. said that at 2:37 p.m. his department received a call from a crisis hot line reporting a suicidal veteran with a gun in a residence on the 2000 block of Lombardy Court.

Police responded to the residence and called the man, who was alone in the home.

"We made contact with him and he informed us that if we got close to the residence he was going to shoot us," Reyna said. "He said he could see us and he was loading the rifle."

Police called for backup and moved away from the home to the Ancona Street intersection. They left their vehicles near the man's residence for fear that moving them would cause him to start shooting, Reyna said.
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Is the DOD trying to make it worse for military men and women?

Is the DOD trying to make it worse for military men and women?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 27, 2013

On July 18, 2013 the Department of Defense released the April and May suicide report. This was done when they should have been releasing the June report.

In April the DOD said there were 11 "potential" suicides. Think about that. That means the families are left wondering what happened. For May it was 12 "potential" suicides. So far this year there have been;

For calendar year 2013, there have been 64 potential active-duty suicides: 31 have been confirmed as suicides and 33 remain under investigation.

They also revised the total of Army suicides to 183.

Updated active-duty suicide numbers for calendar year (CY) 2012: 183 (162 have been confirmed as suicides and 21 remain under investigation).

The most forgotten group has been the National Guards and Reservists.

For April 2013, among that same group, the Army reported 16 potential suicides; however, subsequent to the report, one more case was added bringing April’s total to 17 (14 Army National Guard and 3 Army Reserve).

During May 2013, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were 10 potential suicides (8 Army National Guard and two Army Reserve).

For CY 2013, there have been 70 potential not on active duty suicides (45 Army National Guard and 25 Army Reserve)

Updated not on active duty suicide numbers for CY 2012: 140 (93 Army National Guard and 47 Army Reserve)

So far as of the last week of July, they have not released the Suicide Event Report for 2012. Why? Why on earth would it take this long to release what they have been tracking all along?

The headline from DVIDS is that "Army's Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness program spreads the importance of resiliency"

Secretary of the Army John McHugh announced the formal beginning of the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Oct. 2, 2009, according to www.army.mil.

The Army-wide implementation of this program focuses on enhancing the performance and improving the overall strength and resiliency of soldiers, family members and Army civilians. In July 2012, Comprehensive Soldier Fitness was re-named Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness to incorporate family members.

This is the claim they are still making.

“The purpose of launching CSF2 was to increase people’s emotional strength, equip them with coping skills, and give them the ability to bounce back from any situation life may throw at them,” said Army Col. Kenneth Riddle, CSF2 director. “As well, the CSF2’s vision is to have a total Army team of physically healthy and psychologically strong soldiers, families and Army civilians whose resilience and total fitness enables them to thrive in both the military and civilian sector and to meet a wide range of operational demands.”

While this all sounds good the trouble is coming from not actually looking at the history of this programming. Are they trying to make it worse for the military men and women on purpose? If that is their intention, then they succeeded. If they are trying to save lives, then they failed miserably. The numbers prove it.

The suicides they have to count have gone up since they started this program.

2008 Army suicides at 3-decade high 128

But that was followed up by this

7 soldiers committed suicide in January of 2009 and the cause of death in 17 other cases is still pending, Army officials announced Thursday, marking a significant increase in soldier suicides from the same time period in previous years.

Last month’s numbers are six times higher than those from January 2008 and eight times higher than in 2004.

They said they didn't know why and then tried to blame it on winter.

"This is terrifying," an Army official said. "We do not know what is going on."

Col. Kathy Platoni, chief clinical psychologist for the Army Reserve and National Guard, said that the long, cold months of winter could be a major contributor to the January spike.

Then they tried to explain it away by pointing the finger at repeated deployments, which had been shown to raise the risk of PTSD according to an Army report in 2006.

"US Soldiers serving repeated deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder according to the Army's first survey exploring how today's multiple war-zone rotations affect soldiers' mental health. (Washington Post 2006)

It wasn't that they were not trying. They were still pushing what was called Battlemind in 2009.

Battle Mind must be eliminated from what they are trying to do. There is no doubt in my mind that they really want to save the lives of the troops but they are the last to learn shooting with rubber bullets may be good for target practice but it in no way resembles or prepares them for the real thing. In other words, they are usually the last to learn what the rest of the country already knows. When it comes to PTSD, they are still shooting with blanks.

In March of 2009 William McMichael, staff writer for Army Times reported this.

But calls by troops and former troops to a Veterans Affairs help line indicate that the problem may be even larger that the alarming statistics provided at the hearing.

In calendar year 2008, the Army reported 140 confirmed or suspected suicides. That’s 20.2 suicides per 100,000 troops — an all-time high that is nearly twice the national average of 11.0 suicides per 100,000. The service’s suicide rate has more than doubled since 2004.

The Navy reported 41 suicides in 2008, a rate of 11.6 per 100,000. The Marine Corps lost 41 Marines last year to confirmed or suspected suicides — up from 25 two years earlier — a rate of 19.0 suicides per 100,000. The Air Force lost 38 airmen in 2008, a rate of 11.5 suicides per 100,000.

More ominously, 780 callers to a national Veterans Affairs suicide prevention hotline in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2008, identified themselves as active-duty troops, said Kathryn Power, director of the Center for Mental Health Services in the Department of Health and Human Services.

It was already proven to not be working when in February of 2009 the other bad reports were followed up by these.

U.S. Marine Corps, 1 suicide every two days, attempted ones, every 2 hours!

As many as 18 soldiers killed themselves in February, Army officials announced March 5.

Over at Fort Carson there was a recording of a psychologist saying "I am under a lot of pressure to not diagnose PTSD"

The Army counted 64 possible suicides in the first four months of this year, 11 of those were at Fort Campbell, Ky. — four suicides in January, three in February and four in March.

All of this is bad but what followed was even worse.

Eight soldiers committed suicide in eight days of New Year of 2010

Then by November of 2010 172 soldiers committed suicide this year—surpassing last year’s total of 162 for all of 2009.

Fort Hood’s 22 confirmed suicides, meanwhile, doubled its 2009 mark and was eight more than Fort Bragg, N.C., which had the second-largest tally.

For the beginning of 2011 it got worse

2 Marines killed themselves in February, raising to 4 the number who have committed suicide in 2011.

Another 17 Marines attempted suicide, according to the latest figures from the headquarters of the Marine Corps.

Military Suicides while enlisted are only part of the story. When you factor in how many the DOD no longer has to count, the numbers prove more deadly evidence that Battlemind and "Comprehensive Solider Fitness" do more harm than good. While most of the veterans committing suicide everyday are Vietnam veterans, reports from across the country are about Iraq and Afghanistan veterans taking their own lives even after having all this "training" plus getting involved in standoffs with law enforcement and showing up in veterans courts.

Psychologist and true researchers, including RAND Corp, have exposed this attempt as doing more harm than good. If you want to know more then read The Warrior SAW, Suicides After War and see what caused all of this. Every report in it gives you the source to where the news report came from, the government reports and everything you need to know the DOD doesn't want to tell you.

They can keep saying they are doing something about it but with these results it should leave you wondering why they would push what has made it worse and why the media has not even asked them to explain these results.

What are they doing about it now? They are pushing it harder.

Army's Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness program spreads the importance of resiliency