'Chaos' reigns as deadly tornadoes slam several states
CNN
By Ed Payne, Joe Sutton and Devon Sayers
updated 5:19 AM EDT, Mon April 28, 2014
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
'It's chaos here," Vilonia mayor says
In Mayflower, a highway was littered with crushed and overturned vehicles
Emergency dispatcher: 'Please tell the public to stay away'
Mayflower, Arkansas (CNN) -- A brutal band of severe weather battered the central Plains and mid-South late Sunday, killing at least 16 people in Arkansas and one in Oklahoma.
Some of the worst damage was north of Little Rock, Arkansas, where reported tornadoes devastated the towns of Mayflower and Vilonia.
"It's chaos here," said Vilonia Mayor James Firestone. "Our downtown area seems like it's completely leveled."
The nightmare is all too familiar for the community of about 3,800 people. Another storm ransacked the town almost three years ago to the day and followed essentially the same path, the mayor said.
"There's a few buildings partially standing, but the amount of damage is tremendous," Firestone said Sunday.
"There's gas lines spewing. Of course, power lines down. Houses are just a pile of brick."
read more here
Monday, April 28, 2014
Florida among the highest for veteran suicides
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 28, 2014
1,150,000 calls in the VA crisis line yet suicides are higher than before it started. The military suicides have increased after their "prevention" programs started. When we read a million and a half veterans called at the point of ending their own lives, it shows different things need to be done, not more of the same.
Too many veterans feel isolated when they leave the military. While the percentage of suicides in the military are up, the number of suicides is down because of discharges they no longer have to count.
Today I was in Melbourne to film hundreds of bikers escorting the Traveling Wall into Wickham Park. The Vietnam and All Veterans Reunion is one of the biggest events in the country. Most of the time events in Central Florida are attended by huge groups of veterans. We have the third highest population, slightly behind Texas at number two and California with the most.
Over the ten years I have lived here, it gets harder and harder to read reports like this. It isn't just the sadness from lives lost, but more knowing what is possible for so many others and wondering why all veterans don't find the same sense of family. Is it a secret hidden from them? Didn't anyone tell them that trying to "fit" back in with civilians is not worth the effort?
Had they really wanted to fit in with civilians, they wouldn't have been tugged to join the military. They would have done what everyone else was doing. Thinking of others is not what your average person does beyond their own families.
Volunteers give their time and their love but that is spare time. They don't really fit in with other groups of people never understanding what it is like to do what they do. Members of fire departments don't fit in with other groups. Police officers don't fit in with other groups. So why would veterans want to fit in with other groups?
There is a bond that goes far beyond what co-workers experience. Risking your life for the sake of someone else if something few appreciate and even less understand.
If you are a veteran in Florida, join up with other groups just like you and then you'll know, you belong right where you are, with others you can lean on and be there for them.
Reading this report with over a million calls to the Veterans crisis lines with a rise in suicides proves the need to have "family" standing by your side and they need you just as much.
Kathie Costos
April 28, 2014
1,150,000 calls in the VA crisis line yet suicides are higher than before it started. The military suicides have increased after their "prevention" programs started. When we read a million and a half veterans called at the point of ending their own lives, it shows different things need to be done, not more of the same.
Too many veterans feel isolated when they leave the military. While the percentage of suicides in the military are up, the number of suicides is down because of discharges they no longer have to count.
Over the ten years I have lived here, it gets harder and harder to read reports like this. It isn't just the sadness from lives lost, but more knowing what is possible for so many others and wondering why all veterans don't find the same sense of family. Is it a secret hidden from them? Didn't anyone tell them that trying to "fit" back in with civilians is not worth the effort?
Had they really wanted to fit in with civilians, they wouldn't have been tugged to join the military. They would have done what everyone else was doing. Thinking of others is not what your average person does beyond their own families.
Volunteers give their time and their love but that is spare time. They don't really fit in with other groups of people never understanding what it is like to do what they do. Members of fire departments don't fit in with other groups. Police officers don't fit in with other groups. So why would veterans want to fit in with other groups?
There is a bond that goes far beyond what co-workers experience. Risking your life for the sake of someone else if something few appreciate and even less understand.
If you are a veteran in Florida, join up with other groups just like you and then you'll know, you belong right where you are, with others you can lean on and be there for them.
Reading this report with over a million calls to the Veterans crisis lines with a rise in suicides proves the need to have "family" standing by your side and they need you just as much.
Military, veteran suicides account for nearly one in every four in Florida ... but the numbers don't explain why
Rate is one of the nation's highest
Florida Times Union
By Clifford Davis
Apr 26, 2014
“Since its inception, the crisis line has had over 1,150,000 calls,” said Thompson of the VA’s suicide prevention program. “That’s pretty extraordinary. We’re so glad we’ve had that many calls, but of course it’s heartbreaking that people need to reach out that much.”
Petty Officer 2nd Class David Faithful dreamed of becoming a pilot but — with only a high school education — he knew that was not going to happen anytime soon.
Instead, he became a parachute rigger for ejection seats in Navy aircraft.
It wasn’t exactly what he wanted, but he did his job.
“He did OK with it for a while,” said his mother, Cindy Faithful.
She said her son battled bouts of depression since he was about 17. “He would go through spells where he was really good and then spells where he was not so good.”
Medication would help, but the 25-year-old Faithful knew if he agreed to take psychiatric drugs he would lose his security clearance and his job at Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
“He said his life was a tragedy, a bad movie,” Cindy Faithful said.
“The night before he died, he came up to me and hugged me,” said Cindy Faithful. “He told me, ‘Mom, I really love you and I appreciate everything you’ve been doing for me. I think everything is going to be OK.’ ”
The next day his father found him inside his car — wearing his dress white uniform — in their garage, dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.
STATE NUMBERS STAGGERING
In Florida, the numbers are staggering.
Although veterans make up only 8 percent of the state’s population, they accounted for more than 25 percent of its suicides, according to the report.
Between 1999 and 2011, 31,885 suicides were reported in the state, according to the Florida Department of Health. That would mean more than 8,000 Florida veterans took their lives during those 13 years, according to the VA.
The numbers put Florida among states with the highest percentage of veteran suicides — but the numbers don't explain why.
“We’re still trying to figure that out,” said Caitlin Thompson, the deputy director of Suicide Prevention at the VA.
With such daunting statistics, it’s easy to forget that behind every suicide is a circle of family and friends that will deal with the pain and the often-unanswered question of why.
Increasingly, veterans who commit suicide are not men in their 50s and 60s. Suicides for veterans of that age group have remained steady or declined.
Yet, suicides by veterans from 18 to 29 have jumped from 40.3 to 57.9 per 100,000 from 2009 to 2011, a 44 percent increase, the VA announced earlier this year.
read more here
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Bond during military life leaves veterans with a void
Camaraderie of military life leaves veterans with a void
'Ugh. I miss it.' Transitioning from war to isolation
The Washington Post
By Eli Saslow
Published: April 27, 2014
ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — The only light in the vast Wyoming darkness came from the lit end of another 5:30 a.m. cigarette as Derric Winters waited alone for sunrise on the porch of his trailer. He never slept well, not anymore, so he smoked and stared across the three miles of barren landscape that separated him from town. He checked his voice mail, but there were no messages. He logged on to Facebook, but no one was awake to chat. The only company now was the hum of the interstate behind his trailer, people on their way from one place to the next. He walked out to his truck and joined them.
His shirt read "ARMY," his hat read "10th Mountain Division," and his license plate read "Disabled Veteran." Five bullets rattled on his dashboard as he swerved around another car with his right fist pressed against the horn. "Come on," he said. "Go. Just go!" It had been five years since he returned from 16 months at war, and some days he still acted like he was back in Afghanistan. Many days, he wished that he were.
"The lonely process of overcoming combat" was what one doctor called it as he prescribed Winters the latest in a series of anti-anxiety medications. But what the doctor didn't seem to understand was that this was the place Winters was failing to overcome — the America where he felt discouraged and detached, and where his transition seemed like a permanent state. "What the hell am I supposed to do next?" he had asked his commanding officer when he was medically discharged from the Army, which had provided his income, his sense of purpose, his self-esteem and 15 of his closest friends in a platoon they called "The Brotherhood."
He had tried to replace the war by working construction, roughnecking in the oil fields and enrolling in community college. He had tried divorce and remarriage; alcohol and drugs; biker gangs and street racing; therapy appointments and trips to a shooting range for what he called "recoil therapy." He had tried driving two hours to the hospital in Laramie, proclaiming himself in need of help and checking himself in.
read more here
'Ugh. I miss it.' Transitioning from war to isolation
The Washington Post
By Eli Saslow
Published: April 27, 2014
ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — The only light in the vast Wyoming darkness came from the lit end of another 5:30 a.m. cigarette as Derric Winters waited alone for sunrise on the porch of his trailer. He never slept well, not anymore, so he smoked and stared across the three miles of barren landscape that separated him from town. He checked his voice mail, but there were no messages. He logged on to Facebook, but no one was awake to chat. The only company now was the hum of the interstate behind his trailer, people on their way from one place to the next. He walked out to his truck and joined them.
His shirt read "ARMY," his hat read "10th Mountain Division," and his license plate read "Disabled Veteran." Five bullets rattled on his dashboard as he swerved around another car with his right fist pressed against the horn. "Come on," he said. "Go. Just go!" It had been five years since he returned from 16 months at war, and some days he still acted like he was back in Afghanistan. Many days, he wished that he were.
"The lonely process of overcoming combat" was what one doctor called it as he prescribed Winters the latest in a series of anti-anxiety medications. But what the doctor didn't seem to understand was that this was the place Winters was failing to overcome — the America where he felt discouraged and detached, and where his transition seemed like a permanent state. "What the hell am I supposed to do next?" he had asked his commanding officer when he was medically discharged from the Army, which had provided his income, his sense of purpose, his self-esteem and 15 of his closest friends in a platoon they called "The Brotherhood."
He had tried to replace the war by working construction, roughnecking in the oil fields and enrolling in community college. He had tried divorce and remarriage; alcohol and drugs; biker gangs and street racing; therapy appointments and trips to a shooting range for what he called "recoil therapy." He had tried driving two hours to the hospital in Laramie, proclaiming himself in need of help and checking himself in.
read more here
Fort Benning Soldier Died After Training
Ga. soldier collapses during exercises, later dies
Go Erie
April 27, 2014
FORT BENNING, Ga. (AP) — Authorities in western Georgia say a Fort Benning soldier collapsed and died during exercises over the weekend.
Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan says the 20-year-old Fort Benning soldier died early Saturday morning at a hospital in Columbus.
get update here
Go Erie
April 27, 2014
Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan says the 20-year-old Fort Benning soldier died early Saturday morning at a hospital in Columbus.
get update here
The real reason behind military suicides
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 27, 2014
When they survive combat but can't live long enough to heal, there is a reason behind it.
A year ago I published THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR covering the under reported facts surrounding the reasons behind military suicides. Every report in it was taken from news reports on Wounded Times. None of it was secret information but most of what is in it had been ignored.
Comprehensive Soldier Fitness was pushed on every member of the military since 2009 yet afterwards, suicides and attempted suicides increased. This finding came at the same time efforts to reduce suicides were at an all time high. More and more military folks were seeking help as well as more veterans. It also came with a hefty price financially.
While reporters repeated what military brass and elected officials were telling them, on this side of the fence, what veterans were saying showed the reason behind the rise in their suffering.
When officials say they are doing something to address the problems but things get worse, it robs these men and women of hope they can heal. When they do not get the best help available, they lose the thought their lives really matter.
The following is from the Department of Defense Suicide Event Report and for 2012 military suicide report While the report was "generated on December 20, 2013, it has just been released.
Results
This part is very troubling considering it points out that many of them had been diagnosed and sought help for "mental health" issues, in other words, PTSD in most cases.
Maybe now something will be done to change what they have been doing because one other factor to consider is that the percentage of troops seeking to end their pain has gone up, in the process, so has the suffering of family members doing whatever they can to survive.
Kathie Costos
April 27, 2014
When they survive combat but can't live long enough to heal, there is a reason behind it.
Comprehensive Soldier Fitness was pushed on every member of the military since 2009 yet afterwards, suicides and attempted suicides increased. This finding came at the same time efforts to reduce suicides were at an all time high. More and more military folks were seeking help as well as more veterans. It also came with a hefty price financially.
While reporters repeated what military brass and elected officials were telling them, on this side of the fence, what veterans were saying showed the reason behind the rise in their suffering.
When officials say they are doing something to address the problems but things get worse, it robs these men and women of hope they can heal. When they do not get the best help available, they lose the thought their lives really matter.
The following is from the Department of Defense Suicide Event Report and for 2012 military suicide report While the report was "generated on December 20, 2013, it has just been released.
Results
According to AFMES data as of 31 March 2013, there were 319 suicides among Active component Service members and 203 among Reserve component Services members (Reserve [n = 73]; National Guard [n = 130].
The suicide rate (per 100,000 Service members) for the Active component was 22.7 and for the Reserve component was 24.2 (Reserve – 19.3, National Guard – 28.1). Per policy, the DoDSER system collected data on suicides for all Service members in an Active status at the time of death, including Service members in the Reserve components (i.e., active or activated2 Reserve/National Guard).
The distribution of suicide DoDSERs across the four included Services was as follows: Air Force – 57 (17.9%), Army – 155 (48.7%), Marine Corps – 47 (14.8%), and Navy – 59 (18.6%).
These counts included reports for both confirmed suicides and probable suicides pending a final determination. Of these suicides, 259 were confirmed by AFMES as of 31 January 2013, the date used for the evaluation of DoDSER submission compliance. For 2012, all Services achieved 100% submission compliance.
A total of 841 Service members had one or more attempted suicides reported in DoDSER for CY 2012
This part is very troubling considering it points out that many of them had been diagnosed and sought help for "mental health" issues, in other words, PTSD in most cases.
The primary method for suicides was the use of a firearm (n = 207; 65.1%). The majority of firearms used were non-military issued firearms (n = 157; 75.8% of events involving a firearm). For suicide attempt DoDSERs, the use of drugs was the most frequently reported method (n = 476; 54.8%).
•A total of 91 suicide DoDSERS (28.6%) and 191 suicide attempt DoDSERs (22.0%) reported that the Service member had communicated potential for self-harm prior to the event.
•A total of 134 suicide DoDSERs (42.1%) and 452 suicide attempt DoDSERs (52.0%) indicated a history of a behavioral health diagnosis. The most frequently reported diagnosis among the suicide DoDSERs was adjustment disorder (n = 82; 61.2% of DoDSERs with a behavioral health diagnosis); among sui- cide attempt DoDSERs, the most common diagnostic category was mood disorder (n = 293; 64.8% of DoDSERs with a behavioral health diagnosis).
•A majority of DoDSERs for both suicides (n = 194; 61.0%) and suicide attempts (n = 588; 67.7%) specified that the Service member had accessed health and/or support services during the 90 days prior to the event. The most frequently used services for both event types were a military treatment fa- cility (MTF; suicides [n = 177; 91.2% of DoDSERs in which access was reported]; suicide attempts [n = 446; 75.9% of DoDSERs in which access was reported]) and outpatient behavioral health (suicides [n = 91; 46.9% of DoDSERs in which access was reported; suicide attempts [n = 399; 67.9% of DoD- SERs in which access was reported]).
•Family and relationship stressors during the 90 days prior to the event were the most common type of stressor reported among suicide DoDSERs (n = 129; 40.6%). This type of stressor was also the most frequently reported among suicide attempt DoDSERs (n = 377; 43.4%).
•A total of 151 suicide DoDSERs (47.5%) and 312 suicide attempt DoDSERs (35.9%) reported a his- tory of deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and/or Operation New Dawn (OND).
Maybe now something will be done to change what they have been doing because one other factor to consider is that the percentage of troops seeking to end their pain has gone up, in the process, so has the suffering of family members doing whatever they can to survive.
OEF-OIF Veteran's Family Gets Home Makeover
Young disabled vet's family gets new home
KATU News
By Emily Sinovic
Published: Apr 26, 2014
Dozens of volunteers give a disabled veteran and his young family a fresh start with a total home remodel.
Danie Ray suffers from PTSD, and he has injuries from two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan that leave him unable to tackle the mounting repairs their southeast Portland home desperately needed. His wife, Deleana Ray, said "... a roadside bomb and messed his wrist up, shoulder, back, knee issues and there's PTSD.... it can cause your head to hurt, your heart to race like you're panicking, like a panic attack."
Deleana is a full-time teacher and couldn't handle the deteriorating home repairs on her own either, nor did the couple have the money to take care of everything from electrical problems, to a roof that wasn't reliable. That changed when dozens of volunteers from Rebuilding Together Portland and Pods of Portland came out to take care of everything.
read more here
KATU News
By Emily Sinovic
Published: Apr 26, 2014
Dozens of volunteers give a disabled veteran and his young family a fresh start with a total home remodel.
Danie Ray suffers from PTSD, and he has injuries from two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan that leave him unable to tackle the mounting repairs their southeast Portland home desperately needed. His wife, Deleana Ray, said "... a roadside bomb and messed his wrist up, shoulder, back, knee issues and there's PTSD.... it can cause your head to hurt, your heart to race like you're panicking, like a panic attack."
Deleana is a full-time teacher and couldn't handle the deteriorating home repairs on her own either, nor did the couple have the money to take care of everything from electrical problems, to a roof that wasn't reliable. That changed when dozens of volunteers from Rebuilding Together Portland and Pods of Portland came out to take care of everything.
read more here
Bank of America 1,000th military home donation
Veteran receives free home in Gallatin
The Tennessean
Dessislava Yankova, Nashville
April 25, 2014
After dedicating more than five decades to serving others, a military family looks forward to putting down roots in a Gallatin home.
U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Don Chandler and wife Gail on Friday received the keys to a mortgage-free home surrounded by family, public officials, veterans and community members. A procession of the Patriot Guard Riders with American flags and police cars came to the house, where the Gallatin High School band played several songs including “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
About 100 people came to thank Chandler for his service and congratulate the family on the new home awarded by Bank of America in partnership with nonprofit Military Warriors Support Foundation, which helps servicemen transitioning into civilian life.
“Words can’t express how I feel right now,” Chandler, 45, said after receiving the house’s keys. “For so many years, we were always moving. You have given me and my wife a chance to become stable and build a foundation.”
The giveaway marked the bank’s 1,000th military home donation. Thirty-two homes have been given in Tennessee.
read more here
The Tennessean
Dessislava Yankova, Nashville
April 25, 2014
After dedicating more than five decades to serving others, a military family looks forward to putting down roots in a Gallatin home.
U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Don Chandler and wife Gail on Friday received the keys to a mortgage-free home surrounded by family, public officials, veterans and community members. A procession of the Patriot Guard Riders with American flags and police cars came to the house, where the Gallatin High School band played several songs including “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
About 100 people came to thank Chandler for his service and congratulate the family on the new home awarded by Bank of America in partnership with nonprofit Military Warriors Support Foundation, which helps servicemen transitioning into civilian life.
“Words can’t express how I feel right now,” Chandler, 45, said after receiving the house’s keys. “For so many years, we were always moving. You have given me and my wife a chance to become stable and build a foundation.”
The giveaway marked the bank’s 1,000th military home donation. Thirty-two homes have been given in Tennessee.
read more here
Veterans left sitting by dock of bay instead of working on it
Fight Erupts Over Veteran Hiring on the New York Docks
Shipping Industry Seeks to Diversify Labor Force, but Waterfront Commission Suspects 'Subterfuge'
Wall Street Journal
By YONI BASHAN
April 25, 2014
The New York shipping industry and the agency charged with fighting corruption on the docks are clashing over a recruitment drive to bring military veterans to work in high-paying jobs in New York Harbor.
Facing pressure to root out nepotism and hire more minority dock workers, the New York Shipping Association—an umbrella group for shipping industry employers—and the docks' union, the International Longshoremen's Association, came up with a plan last year to make veterans more than half of its new hires.
Under the plan, the union and shipping association have recruited military veterans and referred them to the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, which regulates hiring at the ports, vets workers and licenses them before they are hired by individual companies.
Longshoremen are well-paid, highly coveted jobs, some of which pay between $100,000 and $200,000 a year. The union and shipping industry have been advertising the jobs, holding job fairs and using recruitment agencies, so people who weren't friends, family or acquaintances of union members had a chance to apply.
But as the veterans plan moved forward last year and this year, the Waterfront Commission discovered a trend: The union and industry were slow to refer many veterans, and some of those who were put up for licenses had close ties to union members—a breach of the spirit of diversifying the workforce.
read more here
Shipping Industry Seeks to Diversify Labor Force, but Waterfront Commission Suspects 'Subterfuge'
Wall Street Journal
By YONI BASHAN
April 25, 2014
The New York shipping industry and the agency charged with fighting corruption on the docks are clashing over a recruitment drive to bring military veterans to work in high-paying jobs in New York Harbor.
Facing pressure to root out nepotism and hire more minority dock workers, the New York Shipping Association—an umbrella group for shipping industry employers—and the docks' union, the International Longshoremen's Association, came up with a plan last year to make veterans more than half of its new hires.
Under the plan, the union and shipping association have recruited military veterans and referred them to the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, which regulates hiring at the ports, vets workers and licenses them before they are hired by individual companies.
Longshoremen are well-paid, highly coveted jobs, some of which pay between $100,000 and $200,000 a year. The union and shipping industry have been advertising the jobs, holding job fairs and using recruitment agencies, so people who weren't friends, family or acquaintances of union members had a chance to apply.
But as the veterans plan moved forward last year and this year, the Waterfront Commission discovered a trend: The union and industry were slow to refer many veterans, and some of those who were put up for licenses had close ties to union members—a breach of the spirit of diversifying the workforce.
read more here
Liberty Lake Police Stunned By Suicide
Sources: Veteran Liberty Lake police officer killed himself
KXLY Washington
Author: Jeff Humphrey, KXLY4 Reporter
Published On: Apr 25 2014
SPOKANE, Wash
KXLY sources report a veteran Liberty Lake police officer apparently took his own life in an SUV early Friday morning in northwest Spokane.
Spokane Police Major Crimes detectives are investigating the death of Sergeant Clint Gibson, who was off-duty at the time of his death.
Gibson's body was discovered by Spokane Police inside his personal vehicle, which was found in a parking lot near the intersection of Francis and Madison in northwest Spokane around 1:45 Friday morning.
The investigation indicates Gibson took his own life with a firearm and either before or after that shot was fired his SUV crashed into some trees and other objects in the vicinity. The Spokane County Medical Examiner will perform an autopsy to confirm his cause of death.
It didn't take very long for officers to realize who and what they were dealing with and then Liberty Lake Police Chief Brian Asmus got the phone call he hoped he would never have to answer. Gibson's death has left Liberty Lake and the law enforcement community stunned.
"I got the call from dispatch about the accident about two o'clock this morning. Myself, one of our other officers, our police chaplain met here, we went to be with the officer's family," Asmus said.
read more here
KXLY Washington
Author: Jeff Humphrey, KXLY4 Reporter
Published On: Apr 25 2014
KXLY sources report a veteran Liberty Lake police officer apparently took his own life in an SUV early Friday morning in northwest Spokane.
Spokane Police Major Crimes detectives are investigating the death of Sergeant Clint Gibson, who was off-duty at the time of his death.
Gibson's body was discovered by Spokane Police inside his personal vehicle, which was found in a parking lot near the intersection of Francis and Madison in northwest Spokane around 1:45 Friday morning.
The investigation indicates Gibson took his own life with a firearm and either before or after that shot was fired his SUV crashed into some trees and other objects in the vicinity. The Spokane County Medical Examiner will perform an autopsy to confirm his cause of death.
It didn't take very long for officers to realize who and what they were dealing with and then Liberty Lake Police Chief Brian Asmus got the phone call he hoped he would never have to answer. Gibson's death has left Liberty Lake and the law enforcement community stunned.
"I got the call from dispatch about the accident about two o'clock this morning. Myself, one of our other officers, our police chaplain met here, we went to be with the officer's family," Asmus said.
read more here
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Hero in VIetnam at 20, Honored 49 years later in Ohio
Vietnam veteran Bob Towles presented with Distinguished Service Cross for heroism
The Plain Dealer
By Brian Albrecht
April 25, 2014
CLEVELAND, Ohio – On November 17, 1965, Bob Towles was a 20 year old from Niles, Ohio, who had only been in Vietnam for two months when his Army infantry unit was suddenly attacked without warning.
As his fellow soldiers from the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Cavalry (1st Cavalry Division-Air Mobile) fell around him, Towles was hit in the right side by shrapnel from a mortar round or rocket-propelled grenade. Yet he charged ahead under heavy enemy fire, single-handedly attacking and taking out an enemy machine gun position, allowing his wounded comrades to escape.
That heroism was honored Thursday with presentation of the Distinguished Service Cross to Towles, now 69, of Windham, at Windham High School. The award is the Army's second highest military honor.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown attended the ceremony and had worked with U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan to secure the medal for Towles, who had previously received a Bronze Star for his actions. It was later determined that his actions made him eligible for the Distinguished Service Cross.
“I feel very honored and humbled,” Towles said after the presentation.
He remembered that the action that led to that award was fast and furious, as 155 soldiers in the battalion were killed and 128 wounded. “Yeah, it didn’t take very long, but it seems like long time when it’s happening,” he said.
read more here
The Plain Dealer
By Brian Albrecht
April 25, 2014
Sen. Sherrod Brown joins Lt. Col. William Meade of the Camp Ravenna Joint Military Training Center in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Vietnam veteran Robert Towles, of Windham, Ohio.
(Office of Sherrod Brown)
CLEVELAND, Ohio – On November 17, 1965, Bob Towles was a 20 year old from Niles, Ohio, who had only been in Vietnam for two months when his Army infantry unit was suddenly attacked without warning.
As his fellow soldiers from the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Cavalry (1st Cavalry Division-Air Mobile) fell around him, Towles was hit in the right side by shrapnel from a mortar round or rocket-propelled grenade. Yet he charged ahead under heavy enemy fire, single-handedly attacking and taking out an enemy machine gun position, allowing his wounded comrades to escape.
That heroism was honored Thursday with presentation of the Distinguished Service Cross to Towles, now 69, of Windham, at Windham High School. The award is the Army's second highest military honor.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown attended the ceremony and had worked with U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan to secure the medal for Towles, who had previously received a Bronze Star for his actions. It was later determined that his actions made him eligible for the Distinguished Service Cross.
“I feel very honored and humbled,” Towles said after the presentation.
He remembered that the action that led to that award was fast and furious, as 155 soldiers in the battalion were killed and 128 wounded. “Yeah, it didn’t take very long, but it seems like long time when it’s happening,” he said.
read more here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)