Marines weighing having members hitch rides on foreign warships
FOX News
Jennifer Griffin
Lucas Tomlinson
June 29, 2015
The Marines are weighing whether to have members hitch a ride on foreign warships, citing a shortage of U.S. Navy vessels due to recent budget cuts -- raising bipartisan security concerns about the leverage this could give other countries.
A key concern is whether a warship from a host nation could deny Marines permission to come ashore.
"Ceding our amphibious ships to other countries -- it's almost silly and I can't believe it is even an option for the Navy," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who served as a Marine in Iraq. "Now we are going to have to ask other countries, much less financially stable countries than America, to loan us their ships so that we can base our Marines on their ships. It's almost embarrassing." read more here
Weymouth mourns US Marine’s unexpected death
Boston Globe
By Rosa Nguyen
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
JUNE 29, 2015
A US Marine from Weymouth who was about to graduate at the top of his class died June 20 at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida.
The death of 19-year-old Private First Class Peter J. Handibode was not related to training, said First Lieutenant Matthew Rojo, a Marine Corps spokesman.
An investigation into the specific circumstances of his death is ongoing, and no additional information is available at this time, Rojo added.
“It’s a tragedy whenever we lose a young service member,” said George Pontes, director of veterans services in Weymouth. read more here
Confederate flag hung from Boston memorial for black soldiers
Boston Globe
By Niko Emack-Bazelais and Jennifer Smith
GLOBE CORRESPONDENTS
JUNE 29, 2015
“It makes me angry to have to do this in my own town,” she said. “I was like, really? Is that for real?”
Melissa Carino pulled down a Confederate flag from the Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial across from the State House on Sunday.
A Confederate battle flag was attached Sunday night to a Boston memorial that commemorates one of the first all-black regiments to fight for the union during the Civil War, hanging there for over an hour before a woman removed it.
Melissa Carino, 37, of Lowell said she saw the flag hanging from the Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial across the street from the State House at about 8 p.m. Carino said she left and returned to the location later, angered that it had not been removed.
The 54th Regiment was commissioned by Governor John A. Andrew shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation. It was the inspiration for the 1989 movie “Glory.’’
Late Sunday night, the flag appeared ripped and torn from attempts to remove it. But it remained tied to the monument until 10:30 p.m., when Carino finally untied it and took it down, placing it in a trash can. read more here
Linked from Military.com
Gay Army General Reflects on Supreme Court's Historic Ruling
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan
Jun 29, 2015
The first general officer to come out as gay following the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in 2011 says the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage across the country makes "a positive difference in many service members' lives" for practical and heartfelt reasons.
"The practical impact is uniformity in the recognition of family," Army Reserve Brig. Gen. Tammy Smith told Miltary.com. "The heartfelt impact is that every family matters, regardless of who you marry."
Smith, who married Tracey Hepner in 2012 at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC, was at Brooks Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, as the keynote speaker marking Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month when she received word on Friday that the high court made same-sex marriage the law of the land.
Smith paused long enough to ask her wife -- a woman who had to remain invisible before the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell -- up to the podium while she announced the high court's ruling and read a portion of it. read more here
Discovery of WWII remains brings long-sought peace to Boulder County family
Lost since 1943, remains of Alexander 'Sandy' Bonnyman unearthed on Pacific isle
Daily Camera
By Shay Castle
Staff Writer
POSTED: 06/29/2015
In Highland Memorial Park in Knoxville, Tenn., a large marble headstone stands in honor of 1st Lt. Alexander "Sandy" Bonnyman Jr., a Marine killed in action Nov. 22, 1943, during World War II's Battle of Tarawa.
Etched upon its surface, the only reference to the empty earth beneath it, are the words "buried at sea."
For nearly 70 years, Bonnyman's family — members of which now live in Boulder County — remembered the handsome, adventurous man they had lost with what few artifacts they had left: his Medal of Honor, awarded posthumously for his efforts to hold back a Japanese counterattack; a large portrait, commissioned from an Italian oil painter; and a few black-and-white photographs taken during the assault on Betio.
After his death, the military issued a letter stating that most of the Tarawa war dead were presumed lost at sea near the island. read more here
Clay Evans Talks About His Grandfather, MOH Recipient Alexander Bonnyman Jr.
FIRST LIEUTENANT ALEXANDER BONNYMAN, JR., USMCR
(DECEASED)
First Lieutenant Alexander Bonnyman, Jr., of Knoxville, Tennessee, who gallantly gave his life in the battle for Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands, on 22 November 1943, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award, for heroism.
The Medal of Honor was presented to his teen-aged daughter by Secretary of the Navy James F. Forrestal during ceremonies at the Navy Department, Washington, D.C., 22 January 1947.
Alexander "Sandy" Bonnyman, Jr., was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on 2 May 1910, but when he was two years old, his family moved to Knoxville. His father was president of the Blue Diamond Coal Company of Knoxville.
As a youth, he attended Mrs. J.A. Thackston's School in Knoxville and graduated from Newman School in Lakewood, New Jersey, before entering Princeton University. He was a "first-stringer" on Princeton's football team until he left school in 1930.
He enlisted in the Army Air Corps as a Flying Cadet on 28 June 1932 and was sent to the Preflight School at Randolph Field, Texas. He was honorably discharged 19 September 1932.
Following his discharge he went to work with his father, whose firm was one of the largest coal mining companies in the United States. In 1938, he acquired his own copper mine in the mountains about 60 miles from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
When he decided to join the Marines in July 1942, he enlisted as a private in Phoenix, Arizona. Subsequently he received his recruit training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California, and in October of that year, Pvt Bonnyman sailed for the South Pacific aboard the USS Matsonia with the 6th Marines, 2d Marine Division.
Combat in the final stages of the Guadalcanal campaign followed for the 6th Marines and he had his first encounter with the Japanese. In February 1943 Cpl Bonnyman received a field promotion to the rank of second lieutenant. He was promoted to first lieutenant on 1 September 1943. read more here
Sept. 24, 2015: United States Marines salute during a ceremony in Honolulu for the departure of 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman's remains. (AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy)
Sinise: ‘Serious Disconnect’ Between the Average American and Military
"This is a dangerous 21st century...and the military is going to be called many, many times in the coming decades."
PJ Media
Nicholas Ballasy
June 29, 2015
Actor Gary Sinise said there is a “serious disconnect” between the average American citizen and its military, emphasizing the need to educate the public about lasting effects of war.
“Education, as I was saying, is such a critically important part of letting our young people understand why it’s important to support this 0.1 percent of our population that serves in the military. It’s a very, very small percentage of over 300 million people serving in uniform, defending our country,” Sinise said at the National Press Club.
“A lot of young people, if they don’t have a personal connection to somebody who is serving in the military, there’s a disconnect, there’s a serious disconnect between the average American citizen and its military so keeping awareness up, education, that’s why I’m supporting the Medal of Honor Foundation museum.”
Sinise, the national spokesperson for the Disabled Veterans’ LIFE Memorial Foundation, said the museum is going to serve as a “beacon of education for what service, selflessness and character is all about.”
“We want our young people to understand something greater than themselves of service,” he said.
read more here
Sinise: ‘Serious disconnect’ between the average American and its military
Wounded vet's donated home ransacked, burglarized in Sanford, police say
No arrests made
Wesh 2 News
By Adrian Whitsett
Published 10:29 PM EDT Jun 29, 2015
SANFORD, Fla. —A wounded combat veteran’s home was burglarized Sunday, according to the Sanford Police Department.
Jackie Irving said he went to church with his wife and kids and when they returned they found the home ransacked. The house was donated to the Irving family three months ago.
Police said the intruders were able to enter the home through an unlocked door and stole $6,000 worth of electronics and four guns, including an antique pistol.
“My Purple Heart was stepped on. It’s bad when a soldier thinks he’s over there defending his country and his country don’t give a God darn about him,” Irving said.
He said he is working with neighbors to provide the police with new leads. read more here
Veteran dies two days after VA hospital visit, widow blames poor treatment as cause
Times Leader
By Jerry Lynott
Last updated: June 29. 2015
Something told Olga Pryjmak to be with her husband on his final doctor’s visit, and it wasn’t him.
Stephen Pryjmak was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam, and a Newark, New Jersey police officer who retired after 25 years on the force.
He had been diagnosed with a blood clot in his heart. His wife was at his side during a visit with a cardiologist at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Wilkes-Barre on Aug. 27, 2013.
“Normally my husband didn’t want me to go in with him to see the doctor, but this time I insisted,” she said of accompanying him that day.
He had been complaining of shortness of breath and chest pain, signs of a serious problem to his wife, who started her nursing career in the U.S. Army and continued it for nearly 40 years in intensive care units in New Jersey hospitals.
The doctor prescribed medication to strengthen his heart and scheduled a follow-up visit for a month later instead of sending him immediately to a hospital for the cardiac catheterization his wife said he needed.
Two days later, her 65-year-old husband suffered a massive heart attack at home and died in a Hazleton hospital. read more here
OHS Grad Missing from Army Found Safe
Only Oswego
Steven Jack
Jun 29, 2015
SPC Danny Domres, the Oswego High School graduate, who was reported AWOL in May from Fort Carson, Colorado, has been found.
According to the Missing Warrior Alert Facebook page, Domres turned himself into Fort Carson officials late Sunday evening.
"We have worked hard to find him: the volunteers, the private Investigators, our family. We will NEVER give up on him," Danny's father Tom Domres said in a Facebook post from early Monday morning.
Danny, a 2012 graduate of Oswego High School, had been considered AWOL from Fort Carson, since Monday, May 11, when he apparently walked off the base after an alcohol test. Danny may be suffering from post traumatic stress disordered after serving for nine months in Afghanistan in late 2012 and early 2013.
read more here
Koh Tang: Survivors of last Vietnam battle go back to honor missing comrades
Stars and Stripes
Matthew M Burke
June 28, 2015
KOH TANG, Cambodia — Forty years ago, scores of inexperienced U.S. servicemembers waged a largely forgotten battle in a largely unknown place to rescue a mysterious ship from an unfamiliar enemy.
Forty-one American servicemembers were killed in the operation, including three Marines who were left behind, ending the dark chapter of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia — one that many seemed more than willing to forget.
In May, veterans of the battle of Koh Tang, also known as the “Mayaguez Incident” or the last battle of the Vietnam War, returned to the small, jungle-blanketed Cambodian island in the Gulf of Thailand for the anniversary of the ill-fated mission.
They disregarded persistent health problems, braved the unrelenting demons that have plagued their thoughts since 1975, and carried a message to the U.S. government and the American public at large: We will never forget.
read more here
Return to Koh Tang: Veterans of Mayaguez Operation Return for the 40th Anniversary
Jun 24, 2015
On May 12, 2015 veterans and members of their families returned to Koh Tang, a small island off the Cambodian coast to commemorate what is considered by many to be the last battle of the Vietnam War.
