10th Mountain mourning loss of 2 soldiers in Afghanistan

2 Drum soldiers killed in Afghanistan, DoD confirms
Army Times
Apr. 30, 2014 - 05:37PM

Pfc. Christian J. Chandler, 20, left and Sgt. Shawn M. Farrell II, 24, were killed in separate locations, according to DoD announcements released Wednesday.
(Army)

Two soldiers from 10th Mountain Division were killed Monday in Afghanistan, the Defense Department has confirmed.

Sgt. Shawn M. Farrell II, 24, and Pfc. Christian J. Chandler, 20, were killed in separate locations, according to DoD announcements released Wednesday.
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Special Forces: commandos are committing suicide at a record pace this year

Consider this. If the DOD and the Pentagon "efforts" to prevent suicides did not even prevent them in Special Forces, why did they keep doing it? Why did they keep saying that "most had not been deployed" when they were all trained with Comprehensive Solider Fitness? Why did they say the numbers were down when in fact the number of enlisted also went down leaving less to count?

Suicide Rise in Special Ops Spurs Call for Review
Tampa Tribune
By Howard Altman
Tribune Staff
Published: April 29, 2014

Concerned with the increase in commandos taking their own lives, a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee is calling for the Pentagon to review Department of Defense efforts regarding suicide prevention among members of the Special Operations Forces and their dependents.

The call for a review is included in proposals by the Military Personnel Subcommittee as part of the half-trillion dollar-plus military budget request for the fiscal year beginning in October. If the measure passes, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel would have three months after passage of the budget to report the findings to the House and Senate Armed Services committees.

“If the final bill calls for a report, we will work with the Department of Defense to ensure they have all the information they need to report to Congress,” said U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman Ken McGraw.

The subcommittee is also calling for a look at the overall issue of troop suicides, as well as how the military is handling sexual assaults, military health care costs and other health and well-being issues.

Earlier this month, Socom commander Adm. William McRaven told a Tampa intelligence symposium that commandos are committing suicide at a record pace this year. Though he offered no figures, he was repeating a concern he first raised in February at a Congressional hearing on his budget.

“The last two years have been the highest rate of suicides we have had in the special operations community and this year I am afraid we are on the path to break that,” McRaven, whose headquarters is at MacDill Air Force Base, said at the GEOINT 2013* Symposium in Tampa earlier this month.
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U.S. special forces struggle with record suicides

Airmen receive long-overdue POW medals after 70 years!

About time: WWII airmen receive long-overdue POW medals
FOX News
April 30, 2014

It's recognition more than 70 years in the making.

Eight U.S. service members shot down and captured while fighting Hitler’s Nazi regime finally received long overdue Prisoner of War medals during a ceremony Wednesday at the Pentagon. For decades, the airmen were denied POW status, even though they crashed over Germany and were later held in a prison camp in Wauwilermoos, Switzerland. But after a grandson of one of the airmen fought a 15-year battle to show what they had gone through, including the daring escapes that allowed them to get back to the fight, the Pentagon reversed course.

USAF Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh III presented the medals to eight of the veterans and one of their grandsons during the ceremony. The Air Force authorized the awarding of the medal to 143 USAAF airmen last year following a change in criteria. Army Air Corps First Lieutenant James Mahon, 91, was among those honored, some 70 years after his imprisonment after he and the rest of his B-17 crew were captured.

"It’s the kind of courage we read about in books, that people make movies about," Welsh said of the valor shown by the airmen. "But make no mistake about it, these men have that type of courage … and boy, did these guys saddle up.”
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Yale Law School takes on VA over sexual assault cases

Yale Law School suit alleges Veterans Administration biased against sex assault victims with PTSD
New Haven Register
By Mary E. O’Leary
POSTED: 04/30/14 NEW HAVEN

The Service Women’s Action Network and Vietnam Veterans of America Wednesday sued the Veterans Administration, claiming its rules discriminate against vets seeking disability benefits for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder tied to military sexual trauma.

The organizations are represented by the Yale Law School’s Legal Services Clinic, which filed the action in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.

The suit claims that nearly one in three women is raped during their term of service in the military, while more than half experience unwanted sexual contact.

But it is not only women who are victims, according to the suit. It says that of the 26,000 reports of unwanted sexual contact made in 2011-12, some 52 percent came from men.

“These assaults often result in devastating, long-term psychological injuries, most notably Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Sexual violence correlates with PTSD more highly than any other trauma, including combat,” the suit states.

In order to acquire disability benefits, veterans have to prove the disability is service-related.
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Waffle House Waitress Made Sure Veteran Was Honored

Veteran gets military funeral after waitress sparks movement
WBTV.com
By David Whisenant
Updated: Apr 30, 2014 4:40 PM EDT

SALISBURY, NC (WBTV)

Dozens gathered on Wednesday morning at the Veterans Administration Medical Center National Cemetery Annex in Salisbury this morning to say goodbye to a man most had never met.

Mike Pardalis sometimes didn't talk at all. He might have been quiet, but his impact on Mandi Gardner was huge.

Gardner has worked at the Waffle House in Concord for 11 years and says sometimes Mike would doze off in a corner booth. But he was nice and he was a long-time regular customer.

And for a former waitress at a Concord Waffle House, the service was both a tribute, and the fulfillment of a dream.

Mandi Gardner had worked at the Waffle House in Concord for 11 years and was very fond of long-time customer Mike Pardalis.

Pardalis was a quiet man, sometimes not speaking at all, but he left a huge impact on Mandi.

She says sometimes Mike would doze off in a corner booth. But he was nice and he was a long-time regular customer.

"Rough around the edges with a marshmallow middle," is how Mandi describes the man she knew for many years. "But he was a sweet man. He's not going to just walk away from you with your keys locked in a car standing there with a baby."

On April 10, Mike had a heart attack and died alone in his van. His body laid in the morgue at NorthEast Medical Center for nearly two weeks. No one called to claim his body.

"No memorial, there's no headstone, no goodbye, nothing for someone to track down and find," Mandi told WBTV.
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Politician acknowledges more of the same wrong answer

WOUNDED TIMES
Kathie Costos
April 30, 2014

Mel Levey, Military Officer and Congressional Candidate from Texas wrote an article on military suicides. "Suicide in the Military remains near all-time high. This is part of the subtitle "More of the same is not the answer" and it is a big part of the solution.

"If you promote this program (Comprehensive Solider Fitness) the way Battlemind was promoted, count on the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides to go up instead of down. It's just one more deadly mistake after another and just as dangerous as sending them into Iraq without the armor needed to protect them." I wrote that in 2009 after reading about the program and talking to veterans subjected to "Battlemind" training. They talked about how that training left them thinking they were mentally weak and didn't train right. They heard their buddies talking about others showing signs of PTSD and making fun of them.

Considering they were told if they trained right and toughened their brains, they wouldn't end up up with PTSD, what other thoughts could they possibly have?

We read their stories everyday. We read about how the military has "no idea" why the suicides went up. What the general public does not know is that what the military has been doing is a huge part of the reason.

Last year after families urged me to write about what they finally learned I agreed to write THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR. None of what is in this book is a secret. Reports came from across the country, collected over 6 years on Wounded Times.

None of it was a secret but people would have to search for all of it since the national news failed miserably. They failed to do basic research so when they went out to do an interview, they didn't even know the right questions to ask. They failed to invest the time and energy it took to do what I did everyday.

The answer has not been a secret but no one told the thousands of veterans and military folks what they needed to know.

More of the same is not the answer now and was not the answer last year, the year before or 5 years ago yet that is exactly what everyone is doing.

More and more bills come out of congress as more and more money goes into pushing what has failed.

We're going to keep reading their stories and their suffering because no one seems interested in pushing what does work. What has been tested and tried in real life situations.

Families still remain in the dark without a clue what PTSD is or what they can do to help. Veterans are left dealing with a lot of pain they do not need to carry.

The answer is in three parts.

MIND
They need to understand what PTSD is and why they have it. The cause is surviving traumatic events, even civilians suffer from but for veterans, it is a different type. They are not just survivors of traumatic events, they participate in them. They placed their lives on the line for the sake of someone else and that required a deeper ability to care. That same ability also allows them to feel things more than others. It has nothing to do with courage or Medal of Honor heroes would never experience it but more and more have come out and talked about their own struggles. It has nothing to do with training to "prevent it" and that has been proven over the years when the DOD tried to do it.

BODY
They had to teach their bodies to do what they were able to do in combat but then they have to train them to clam down and be able to rest again. Nothing happens automatically. It takes a lot of work to get a body in shape for fighting wars. The DOD needs to train them how to get into shape for fighting to find living in peace again.

SPIRIT
PTSD is a spiritual wound and needs to be treated where it lives. In the spirit. Smacking soldiers with a bible isn't the answer but helping them heal with love and understanding is key. They can heal if they take a look at everything a different way, forgive where needed and stop trying to "fit back in" with people who were never the same as them. Veterans hang out with other veterans because they understand each other.

There is so much that has been learned over the last 40 years, but most has been forgotten. The question is, can it be forgiven when most of the suffering veterans have gone through was not necessary?

Vermont National Guardsman Killed by Family Member

Police: Vermont National Guard member threatened family before being shot dead by relative
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 29, 2014

ESSEX, Vermont — A Vermont National Guard member threatened family members with a gun before one of them shot and killed him, police said.

Kryn Miner died of multiple gunshot wounds to his head, neck and torso early Saturday, the state medical examiner's office said.

Miner, 44, had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, police said.

No arrests have been made, and the people involved in the shooting have been cooperative with law enforcement, Essex Police Chief Bradley LaRose said.

"The surviving members of the Miner family are victims of an unimaginable set of circumstances," he said.

The police investigation's findings will be presented to the Chittenden County state's attorney for review, police said.
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Wonder woman at 4'11" saves man from jumping off bridge

Woman clings to stranger, prevents him from jumping off bridge
620 WTMJ Wisconsin Radio
By Charles Benson
CREATED APR. 28, 2014

MILWAUKEE -- Hanging on for dear life, a passer-by saves a man dangling over I-94 on the side of a Milwaukee Bridge near Miller Park.

It was an heroic team effort by police at the Veterans Administration Hospital who pulled the distraught man to safety on Sunday. But this rescue might not have been possible without the compassion and patience of a woman determined not to let the man jump.

"He was hanging on with one hand on the bar and one hand on this side," said Jill Hewitt.

Hewitt approached the man standing on a tiny ledge on the wrong side of the fence and used every ounce of energy in her four foot eleven frame to hold onto him.

"I told him I wouldn't let him go," said Hewitt. "God meant for you not to take your own life. It was not his time or choice to do that."

She estimates she talked for several minutes, told him she loved him and about the challenges she faced in her own life. But the man never said why he wanted to jump.

"His response typically was, No let me go. I want to die. I want to die!"
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Army Nurse Died Trying To Save Wounded

Details of death of Army nurse in Afghanistan
ERIE TIMES-NEWS
APRIL 29, 2014

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — In her last moments of life, Army nurse Capt. Jennifer Moreno heard two orders.

One was a call to help a wounded soldier struck by a blast in a booby-trapped killing field at an Afghanistan bomb-making compound.

The other was a command to stay put lest she strike another mine in the bomb belt.

The nurse from Madigan Army Medical Center chose to help the wounded soldier, and gave her life trying.

In the words of her commander, Moreno ran "into hell" to rescue a comrade on the night she was killed. Newly released narratives of the Oct. 5 battle reveal the kind of hell Moreno and dozens of Army special operators found while trying to disrupt a plot to kill civilians in the city of Kandahar.

A total of 12 bombs exploded that night — a chain reaction that took the lives of four U.S. soldiers and wounded at least 25.

The fifth bomb killed Moreno, 25, of San Diego who volunteered for a dangerous assignment supporting special operators in combat.

The 11th bomb wounded three soldiers trying to recover her body.

Moreno is Madigan's only fatal casualty from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, even though the hospital south of Tacoma has continuously deployed soldiers to medical facilities in combat zones.

Moreno "sacrificed her life so others could live," her Bronze Star commendation reads.
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Homeless Vet Framed for Rape Sues Chicago

Homeless Vet Framed for Rape Sues Chicago
Courthouse News
By JACK BOUBOUSHIAN
April 29, 2014

CHICAGO (CN) - A homeless, mentally ill veteran spent 11 years in prison after Chicago police withheld exonerating evidence and coerced him into confessing to a rape in a downtown courtroom that never happened, the man claims in court.

Carl Chatman sued Chicago, 15 police officers, Assistant State's Attorney Brian Holmes, and others, in Federal Court.

"Carl Chatman spent more than eleven years in prison for a rape he did not commit," the complaint states.

"Not only did Mr. Chatman not commit the rape for which he was wrongfully convicted, but the rape never even occurred at all. The purported victim made up an account of having been raped in Chicago's Daley Center so that she could bring a lawsuit for money damage against the company responsible for the building's security.

"This marked the second time this same woman had fabricated rape charges in order to bring a legal action against a building security company for illicit financial gain.

"After the purported rape victim made up the story of having been attacked in the Daley Center, the defendants proceeded to 'solve' the crime. Specifically, in their zealousness to obtain a swift conviction in a high profile case, the defendant Chicago police officers took advantage of Mr. Chatman's mental instability and coerced him to falsely confess to a crime that never actually happened."

Chatman, now 59, is an Army veteran who in 2000, had "fallen on hard times. He was an easily confused and extremely vulnerable man," according to the 48-page lawsuit filed by Chicago attorneys Loevy & Loevy.

Chatman went to Chicago's Daley Center, a hub of government offices, to learn how to file a small claims suit in 2002. There, he accidentally walked into Judge Ronald Bartkowicz's courtroom, where he ran into Susan Riggio, who worked as a scheduling clerk for a judge.

"After a very brief interaction, Mr. Chatman left without incident. At the time, he was wearing a Blackhawks jacket and street clothes.

"Based on this encounter, defendant Riggio knew what Mr. Chatman looked like, and also knew that he was a defenseless and guileless individual, who would not fare well if falsely accused. He was, in short, the perfect target for her plan," the complaint states.
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