Fort Bragg solider died in parachute accident while training

Fort Bragg soldier dies in training exercise
Fayobserver.com
By Caitlin Dineen
Staff writer
September 23, 2013

A Fort Bragg soldier died Monday in a parachute accident during a training exercise, officials said.

The soldier was a member of the 18th Airborne Corps. The soldier's identity has not been released pending notification of family.

"Our prayers are with the soldier's family as they begin to work through this terrible tragedy," Fort Bragg officials said in a news release.

This is the first Fort Bragg soldier to die in a parachute training accident in two years.
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Patriot Guard Riders give welcome-home escort to Fort Hood survivor

Patriot Guard Riders give welcome-home escort to Fort Hood survivor
Charlotte Observer
By Lindsay Ruebens
Sep. 22, 2013

Army Spc. Matthew Cooke swung onto a motorcycle Saturday afternoon and rode off to begin what he said will be a new chapter in his life.

Cooke survived five bullet wounds in the 2009 Fort Hood shootings. He was 30. Cooke is finally moving home with his parents in Norwood, in Stanly County, after being honorably discharged from the Army a few days ago. He spent the past four years recovering at Fort Hood, where he was shot three times in the back and once in the groin and a bullet grazed his head.

To welcome him back, some well-wishers and his family greeted him at the American Red Cross Emergency Disaster Operations Center in Charlotte, along with about 20 Patriot Guard Riders who escorted him home.

The Patriot Guard Riders is a national group whose members ride motorcycles and aim to protect dignity and respect for military families, usually at funerals.

One rider blared Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son.”
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Disabled Marine would still die for idiot who vandalized his car

Disabled Marine hopes police find those who vandalized his car
KHOU 11 News
by Shern-min Chow
Posted on September 23, 2013

“As for the idiot who did this, I would have no problem dying for him so he could have that right for his freedom of speech,” Cortez said.

HOUSTON – A disabled U.S. Marine is hoping police find the vandals who targeted his car this weekend.

Hector Cortez flipped through photos from Iraq, remembering “They had advised we had prices on our heads.”

The infantry machine gunner did two tours of duty there. The lance corporal came home battling a new enemy, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

His service dog has helped him manage all kinds of stress, including on Sunday morning when he found his car heavily vandalized. The 28 year old described the graffiti saying, “It was an ‘F-word’ and I’ll just leave it at that.” He added, “The entire driver’s side had racial slurs, spray paint vulgarity.”

The mirrors were painted black, the bumpers stomped on and busted.
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Gym owner laughed at Afghanistan veteran with PTSD because of service dog

Gym apologizes for denying access to war vet with PTSD service dog

Former soldier's service dog refused entry to gym
Human rights complaint planned by man suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder
CBC News
Posted: Sep 23, 2013

A former soldier, who now lives in Vancouver, is filing a complaint with the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission against a Moncton fitness club.

Kevin Berry, 30, served in Afghanistan and says he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. He travels with his service dog Tommy to help him cope with his PTSD symptoms.

"Tommy wakes me up during nightmares, Tommy walks in and clears my house when we get home," said Berry.

Last week, Berry and Tommy were passing through Moncton as part of a walking tour between Nova Scotia and Ontario to raise awareness about post-traumatic stress disorder.

Berry says they went to Global Gym on Mapleton Road so he could work out, but were denied entry even though Tommy wears a service dog vest and comes with a government-issued ID card.

"They never once asked what Tommy was for," said Berry. "It was, `No,' right away."

Berry says after being denied entrance by a club employee, he contacted the gym's owner by telephone. He says the man laughed at him and said he'd never allow pets at his gym.
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Ex-FBI bomb tech to plead guilty to leaking and child porn?

Ex-FBI bomb expert offers guilty plea for leaking Yemen bomb plot
NBC News
By Pete Williams
Chief Justice Correspondent
September 23, 2013

A former FBI bomb technician has offered to plead guilty to leaking classified information about a foiled Yemen bomb plot against a U.S.-bound commercial jetliner to the Associated Press.

Donald J. Sachtleben, a 25-year veteran of the FBI who retired in 2008 but continued working as a contractor, has filed a petition to plead guilty to violating national security laws, according to court documents filed Monday. Sachtleben, of Carmel, Ind., also will plead guilty to child pornography distribution charges resulting from an unrelated investigation, the documents said.

"I am deeply sorry for my actions,” Sachtleben said in a statement issued by his attorneys, Larry Mackey and Kathleen Sweeney. ‘While I never intended harm to the United States or to any individuals, I do not make excuses for myself. I understand and accept that today’s filings start the process of paying the full consequences of my misconduct, and I know that the justice system I once served so proudly will have its say."
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Six months leave and $280,000 for contractors in Afghanistan?

Before you read the report there is something that really made me scream

The Army's internal investigation showed that supervisors directed team members to claim the maximum amount of overtime and comp time possible, earning them salaries topping $280,000 and entitling them to six months paid leave upon returning to the United States.

Thinking about what the troops make for what they do and how long they have to do it, this should have everyone screaming!
Army leaders warned about issues with social scientists
USA TODAY
Tom Vanden Brook
September 23, 2013

Documents show concerns about Human Terrain Team members reached high levels of the Army.

WASHINGTON — Senior Army leaders were warned about potential fraud and rampant sexual harassment by government social scientists sent to Iraq and Afghanistan under the Army's Human Terrain System, newly released documents show.

An investigation of time cards submitted by the Human Terrain Team members in 2009 and 2010 "revealed irregularities both in overtime and compensatory time card reporting...Of note, supervisory involvement in the time sheet management process was not documented, nor does there appear to be an auditable system in place," according to documents released by the Army.

In February, a USA TODAY investigation of the program found substantiated instances of sexual harassment and racism, potential fraud in filing time sheets and indifference to the reports team members had produced. The Army documents were obtained earlier this year by USA TODAY through a Freedom of Information Act request. But the Army withheld some part of the report then, and released them this month after a series of FOIA appeals.
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VA's Embattled Healthcare Chief to Retire

VA's Embattled Healthcare Chief to Retire
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan
Sep 23, 2013

The Department of Veterans Affairs has begun looking for a successor to Dr. Robert Petzel, chief of the frequently criticized Veterans Health Administration, who is slated to retire in 2014.

Petzel, appointed by President Obama as Undersecretary for Health at the VA in 2010, has come under fire on Capitol Hill over management problems at VA hospitals in Georgia and Pittsburgh, where a number of patients died. He has also been criticized over the longstanding backlog of disability claims and for failing to provide lawmakers with requested information in a timely manner.

The VA said in a statement Friday that Petzel would be retiring “as planned, following a four-year tenure,” but will remain in the job until the Senate confirms a successor.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki expressed his gratitude to Petzel in the statement for serving veterans’ healthcare needs for four decades and “for his leadership in transforming VHA’s health care delivery system to better care for veterans.”

Earlier this month, the House Veterans Affairs Committee relocated to Pittsburgh for a hearing on the deaths of patients at VA hospitals, including at least five who died from Legionnaires' disease at the Pittsburgh hospital.
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That is what love does

That is what love does
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 23, 2013

PTSD was destroying my life to the point where I was in the hospital praying I would just die there. The doctor wasn't sure how I had lived so long with a massive infection spreading thru my veins. I had it for 8 months following the birth of our daughter. I was suffering that much but I wasn't the one with PTSD. My husband is still dealing with it and healing.

That dark day in my life was 25 years ago. Thinking about it now makes me sad because I think of all the years people have been working on healing PTSD but we arrived at a point where there are now more suicides than ever.

I wanted to die because no day was better than the previous one. There was no hope of any of the ones to come being better because I had given up on everyone including myself. It was not until my fever broke after three days that I found the will to live because I was thinking about our baby daughter and she was my reason to hope. Then I thought of how my husband was the reason I was still alive because he insisted on getting me to the doctor's office. By the time I arrived in the exam room, my fever was 104. It was 105 by the time I got to the hospital. Had he not cared about me, he would have just left me alone and I would have died. He still loved me beneath all the pain in his soul. There had to be something in me that he saw no matter how I felt about myself. I felt the same way about him. There was something in him he was no longer able to see either.

That is what love does.

Why am I sharing this? Because too much has gone on and there has been too much talk about a lot of nonsense. Right now while Vietnam veterans are the majority of the veterans trying to kill themselves, and far too often succeeding at it, they have not been reminded of how much they have given to all veterans and their families. They have not been reminded of the fact that had it not been for them, there would be no psychologists, mental health techs, crisis intervention teams, trauma units and a long list of other things all citizens have help with. They have not been reminded of the fact that when they came home there was little available for them. As imperfect as it is, everything available today for all veterans is because of them.

The very fact I do what I do, the lives I've saved, the families I've helped over the last 30 years has been because of my husband and what he taught me about what love really is. That is one lesson every veteran needs to learn.

The Huffington Post has been doing an incredible job on military suicides this month. You've read most of them linked on Wounded Times. There is one that started this post because it is about Clay Hunt.

Think Service, Not Suicide
Huffington Post
Kaj Larsen and William McNulty
Posted: 09/23/2013

"There is nothing new about combat stress. I suspect that if one had gone around the stoa in Athens in 485 B.C., there would have been people who were homeless and in distress who were veterans of the Battle of Marathon." - The Earl of Onslow

From Herotodus to Hemingway, soldiers real and fictional have suffered the horrors of war. The tools of war may have changed since the Peloponnese, but the effect of war on the warrior has not changed since its ancient incarnation. As the sun sets on the longest wars in American history, it is shocking -- but not surprising -- that veteran suicides persist.

In 2011 we, a former Navy SEAL and Marine, mobilized to Pakistan with the disaster response organization Team Rubicon to provide aid after floods submerged one-fifth of the country. Our team of 8 veterans and medical personnel traveled through ungoverned areas of central Pakistan where the local Taliban targeted Western relief workers, and where few relief organizations were willing to go.

A Trusted Friend

Our lifeline was a satellite phone connected to our makeshift U.S. command center. No matter when we called, the same calm voice answered, asking: "What do you need?" Clay Hunt, a former Marine Scout Sniper, was on duty for us 24/7.

Clay's position "in the rear with the gear" wasn't glamorous. Nor was it easy supporting a group of former soldiers traveling around Pakistan without weapons. For Clay, this assignment wasn't that different from serving in Iraq or Afghanistan: Troops in the field depended on him. He rolled up his sleeves, slept little, and made sure we weren't alone as we spent long days treating children suffering from cholera and waterborne diseases. During our successful two-week mission to Southern Punjab, the team provided life-saving aid to thousands of Pakistanis. We were proud of our work. Six months later, Clay was dead by his own hand.

Clay's suicide was a turning point for Team Rubicon. As his family and Team Rubicon reeled from Clay's loss, we questioned our mission. If our work was important, why did Clay kill himself? How did we not recognize one of our own in despair? Does our work matter if we lose a team member to suicide?
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When Clay's story came out, I balled my eyes out when I read the word suicide. There is no way he should have felt that hopeless that he couldn't spend one more day here. He did everything experts tell veterans to do and everything on the to do list I give out except one thing. Clay didn't heal enough spiritually and that is the part that is missing most of the time.

I am not talking about "religious" healing, but healing the soul no matter what faith base or no base you may have. If you cannot forgive, including forgive yourself, then you are not healing as much as you could so whatever you do, you are not filled by your good deeds. Your emotions are fighting a battle with the rest of your head and PTSD ends up winning.

Over the years I talked to some people Clay had in his life and they all said he was the first one to think about others. He just couldn't see how much others cared about him. The pain inside of Clay was just too strong to allow the good feelings to defeat it. Neil Landsberg another member of Team Rubicon ended his pain in May of this year.

It isn't about doing good for others that is the ultimate healer or we'd be seeing less suicides considering how much veterans have done for everyone. It is about seeing the good that is still within them feeding the desire to help others that will heal their souls.

Being able to rediscover my own "worthiness" allowed me to stop feeling as if it was all over for me. Being able to forgive what had been done to me did not mean as much as forgiving myself for what I did to myself.

Right now I am trying to figure out how to forgive the people in charge for all of this suffering going on this long when these men and women should have survived being survivors of the wars they were sent to fight for each other. Isn't that what they really were focused on? Saving the lives of the men and women they were with? Isn't that why they were willing to die? So how about we give them a chance to live to fight for others tomorrow?

Iraq veteran survived suicide attempt now saving others

Vet Launches Suicide Prevention Campaign: 'I Am A Suicide Survivor ... And I Am Not Embarrassed By It'
Huffington Post
David Wood
Posted: 09/21/2013

Out on a mission one day in northern Iraq in 2009, a convoy of gun trucks grinds through rising dust. In the turret of the lead truck, Spc. Andrew O'Brien, 21, crouches behind his .50-caliber machine gun. His job: to watch for IEDs, improvised explosive devices. He swivels anxiously to watch the passing landscape for the deadly bombs hidden in trash bags, squashed cartons, dog carcasses, maybe that discarded truck tire.

From up ahead, another convoy approaches: U.S. military police in heavily armored vehicles known as MRAPS, supposedly invulnerable to bomb blasts. As they squeeze past, O'Brien and the gunner in the lead MRAP rotate their guns away from each other. Anonymous under their helmets, goggles and dust scarves, they nod to each other in a silent salute.

Not long after, they hear a ka-rump and there goes the slow-rising column of black smoke. O'Brien knows that other convoy got hit.

Back at Forward Operating Base Summerall that evening, O'Brien and his crew are lined up for formation. They cast sideways glances at a wrecked MRAP, the one whose gunner had nodded to O'Brien. A bomb dangling from a tree had detonated into the gunner's hatch. What's left of the MRAP is partially covered with a tarpaulin, and the sergeant is telling O'Brien and his guys not to look under that tarp; it's off-limits.

He couldn't help himself. Until then, the war had seemed almost distant. He wanted to know the worst. That could have been his truck, his guys. He thought seeing the worst would make him hyper-aware, help him spot IEDs and keep his own crew safe. After formation, he snuck around and lifted the tarp and peered inside. The wreckage hadn't yet been cleaned of human remains.
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Military Suicide Leaves Survivors Struggling With Shame and Guilt

Military Suicide Leaves Survivors Struggling With Shame, Guilt And Social Stigma
Huffington Post
David Wood
September 23, 2013

The first thing that Shanette Booker had to do, when she awoke one dawn to find that her husband, Army Staff Sgt. Andre Booker, had shot himself to death on the floor of their bedroom closet, was to gulp down her shock and horror and get her two young boys out of the house.

She took them to a friend's place down the street, somewhere safe and familiar, and arranged a sleepover for that night so she could deal with the police, the coroner and the funeral home. Finally, she checked into a local hotel and, alone at last, broke down.

The rising toll of military and veteran suicides -- 350 active-duty troops and some 8,000 veterans last year -- is a needless tragedy, a national failure to fully address the underlying problems of stress and mental health disorders, suicide experts say.

But the immediate, crushing impact lands on the families. These survivors are stunned, blindsided by violence that seems to come without warning, and left alone to struggle with shame and guilt. They, too, are Invisible Casualties.

"Families very often fall apart," said Kim Ruocco, who started a suicide survivors support group after her husband, John, a Marine Cobra gunship pilot, took his life in 2005. "You find addiction, multiple suicide attempts among other family members, and reclusiveness -- people have pulled out of their churches and communities because they haven't gotten the support they need," she said. "Survivors after a suicide loss are at a much higher risk of suicide themselves."
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