Louisiana Veterans Affairs Secretary Resigns

Louisiana Veterans Affairs Secretary Resigns amid Investigation 
Associated Press
Oct 08, 2015

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Gov. Bobby Jindal's veterans affairs secretary abruptly resigned Thursday, amid an investigation from the inspector general's office.

Former Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David LaCerte

(VETAFFAIRS.LA.GOV)

Without explanation, Jindal's office announced that David LaCerte had left the position he's held since June 2014, effective immediately.

Robin Keller, a spokeswoman for the Department of Veterans Affairs, confirmed that the agency had been contacted by the inspector general's office. She said she doesn't know what was being investigated.

"I know it's ongoing, and I know we're going to cooperate. Meanwhile, we're just going to continue focusing on the care of our veterans," she said.

The inspector general's office didn't immediately return a call for comment.

Keller said LaCerte offered no explanation to her, simply saying he was resigning immediately.
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Army Drops AWOL Charges Against Ranger-Combat Medic

16 Months after Illegal Search, Army Drops AWOL Case against Ranger
The News Tribune
by Adam Ashton
Oct 08, 2015

At the time of his arrest, Schwisow was a well-regarded medic who had proved himself repeatedly in Iraq and Afghanistan, one of his former officers said.

The Army has dismissed a long-running desertion case against a veteran Joint Base Lewis-McChord Army Ranger who spent more than a year in jail after military police illegally searched his Tacoma apartment.

An Army judge's decision late Tuesday gave Staff Sgt. Brian Schwisow his first night of freedom since he was taken into custody in June 2014.

The veteran of six combat deployments was apprehended after a team of at least six military police officers followed Schwisow's apartment building manager into his home without a warrant while aiming to arrest him on suspicion of desertion and drug-related charges.

Agents and prosecutors left no doubt in court this week that Army police erred when they walked into Schwisow's apartment with their guns drawn.

"You didn't have the authority to go into his apartment, did you?" Army Judge Col. Jeffery Lippert asked the senior Army drug suppression officer who participated in Schwisow's arrest.

"No sir," agent Jennifer Acevedo replied in court at a pretrial hearing.

That error, though serious, was not the reason that Lippert dismissed the six criminal charges against Schwisow.

The dismissal centered on delays that have kept Schwisow in confinement for 489 days while awaiting a trial for desertion and narcotics charges.
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Wendy's Employee Refused to Serve Iraq Veteran with PTSD Service Dog

Veteran Claims Wendy's Denied Service Dog in Columbia County
PA
By Kelly Choate
Published 10/08 2015

Buckhorn, Columbia County -- An Iraq War veteran said a manager of a fast food restaurant gave him a hard time about bringing his service dog into the building.

Patrick Welsh has post traumatic stress disorder, and his Australian Cattle Dog named Snip helps him cope with the condition.

The Columbia County man said Snip wears a vest that identifies her as a service dog, but a recent trip to the Wendy's near the Columbia Mall turned into a nightmare.

Welsh said the manager demanded to see the dog's paperwork, which he said is against the law. He said the woman told him that she did not have to serve him, and that's when the veteran walked out.

The Lewisburg company that owns the Buckhorn Wendy's called the situation a misunderstanding and said the district manager immediately apologized.

A spokesperson said the employee's intent was not malicious, and all service dogs and veterans are welcome in the restaurant.
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Eugene Police Chief Says Killing Veteran "Tragedy for family and community"

Police chief rules officers followed policy in Brian Babb shooting, announces more reforms
But Eugene Police Chief Pete Kerns also says his officers followed department policy
The Register-Guard
By Christian Hill
OCT. 9, 2015

The deadly encounter occurred less than an hour after Babb’s therapist called 911 to report that Babb, who suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury, was suicidal and had fired a gun in the house.

Eugene Police Chief Pete Kerns announced Thursday that his sworn officers followed department policies during their response to a 911 call that ended when an officer fatally shot a veteran in emotional crisis.

The March 30 killing of Brian Babb, a former captain in the Oregon Army National Guard who deployed to Afghanistan, prompted many questions in the community about the department’s handling of the call and prompted the department to make a series of reforms to improve its response to residents in emotional crisis.

Kerns again called Babb’s killing a “tragedy for his family and our community.”

“The experience of this incident has caused us to re-examine our practices and philosophies thoroughly and to advance our performance in high-risk complex calls for service,” Kerns wrote in concluding the 16-page report of his findings after the months-long internal review of the officer-involved shooting.

Kerns said the shift of the initial dispatcher ended during the police response and another dispatcher took her place. Kerns said he didn’t know the exact time of the shift change, and his report is silent on what effect, if any, it had on the police response.

His report said a dispatcher also erroneously reported over the radio to responding officers that Babb had fired his gun into a window, confirming what The Register-Guard had previously reported.

The Eugene Police Department has announced nearly a dozen policy changes and directives in the wake of the March 30 fatal shooting of Brian Babb to improve its response to veterans and other residents in emotional crisis:
1. Organize program to provide support for struggling veterans before they reach crisis.
2. Instruct supervisors to not interrupt if a resident is talking with a mental health professional.
3. Have at least 2 crisis negotiators respond to calls involving mental health crises.
4. Require that officers be sent to the location of a therapist if they are engaged with a barricaded subject to work together to resolve crisis.
5. Develop a decision-making model, similar to one in Scotland, to help officers navigate dangerous encounters.
6. Track the deployment of department’s armored vehicle.
7. Study the use of armored vehicles audio and video equipment so it — rather than an exposed officer — can monitor surroundings.
8. Instruct officers who completed 40-hour crisis intervention instruction to take refresher course.
9. Develop crisis intervention training program for 911 center personnel.
10. Require 911 call takers and dispatchers who initially take “high-risk” call to remain on it until conclusion.
11. Allow officers to wear emblems on uniforms denoting their military service to help connect with veterans.
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Marine and Air Force Veterans First to Respond to UCC Shooting

Police: First responders at UCC are military vets who ran toward gunfire, 'saved lives'
FOX 11 News
BY SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP
OCTOBER 7TH 2015

ROSEBURG, Ore. (Sinclair Broadcast Group) — In a press conference updating the investigation of the shooting at Umpqua Community College, authorities confirmed the names of the two officers who engaged in gunfire with the shooter, shortly before he killed himself.

Chief Jim Burge of the Roseburg Police Department said Sgt. Joe Kaney, and Det. Todd Spingath were first to arrive on-scene. They were in plain clothes, without body armor, but still ran toward the gunfire at Snyder Hall.

"They knew that they could be injured or killed as they ran toward the sound of gunfire" he said.

Sgt. Kaney, a former Marine, has been with the department for 23 years, receiving a medal of honor and purple heart for his service in a previous shooting incident in 2005 - where he was wounded in the ankle.

His coworker, Det. Spingath, was described as an Air Force veteran, employed with the department for 16 years. He was the recipient of a medal of valor for his role in the same 2005 shooting.
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UK Veteran Battles PTSD After Sangin

‘Guilt – even innocent guilt – is an evil thing’: how soldiers struggle to cope when they come home
The Guardian
Matthew Green
October 7, 2015

Many ex-servicemen suffering from combat stress are damaged not by a traumatic event, but by the shock of returning from war. When they fall prey to insomnia, guilt, anxiety and isolation, the military, it seems, does not have all the answers

AJ did not want to leave but he knew he had no choice: the Chinooks only landed every two weeks and would be on the ground for no more than 10 seconds. As the helicopter raced across the hard-packed desert, he could not know that his hardest battle lay ahead.

The faces of the two young Afghan policemen would never leave him. They had both been shot while defending their position and bled to death in the back of a trailer as AJ and a medic tried to staunch their wounds. They could not have been more than 17 years old. AJ, as the former Royal Marine asked me to call him, was on his second deployment to Afghanistan. The first tour, in 2001, had been quiet. Five years later, his unit, 45 Commando, was engaged in fierce fighting with the Taliban outside the town of Gereshk. As a sniper, AJ acted as lookout for the other marines, carefully spotting enemy positions and either calling in mortar fire or counting down from three, according to his training, and pulling the trigger.

After the battle at Gereshk, AJ’s unit was deployed to Sangin, a small town on the Helmand river. It was a Taliban stronghold, and soldiers from the Parachute Regiment had narrowly managed to hold the town centre after intense fighting a few months before. AJ’s unit was based 4km away in an outpost known as FOB (Forward Operating Base) Robinson, where an outer ring of earth-filled wire cages formed the first line of defence. The marines bedded down in buildings in an inner circle nicknamed the Dust Bowl. A tower made of mud bricks stood in the centre and AJ took turns with the other snipers to man a makeshift bunker on the top, cradling their rifles and scanning the dun-coloured landscape for any sign of Taliban fighters.

Nowhere in Sangin was safe, but the tower was particularly exposed. FOB Robinson had been set up on a slope, giving the Taliban concealed in the town a clear aim into its interior. They exploited the site’s weakness to the full, hammering the base with 120mm mortars that made the ground shake. Sometimes as many as 30 rounds would slam into the ground in a single attack.

While other marines took cover, AJ and his sniper team would remain on the tower – searching the surrounding patchwork of terrain for any sign of the enemy. Each time he heard the crump of a mortar being fired, AJ flinched, suspended for 30 seconds, waiting. It was only when he heard an ear-splitting blast as the shell struck home that he knew he was still alive.

On his last day as a marine, AJ’s wife went to work. He got up from the kitchen table and found himself walking towards the garage door intent on ending it all. A silent voice was calling: “Everything will be easy if you come with me.”
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Another PTSD Iraq Veteran Killed By Police During Standoff

Fiancee believes Edgell fired at officers to end own life
Times Daily
By Bernie Delinski Staff Writer
October 7, 2015

Tiffany Braitling, left, said she thought fiancee Eric Edgell

suffered from PTSD after his military stints in the Middle East.

TUSCUMBIA — The last time Tiffany Braitling spoke with Eric David Edgell, he was upset about the fact his work schedule afforded little time to see her.

But Braitling said many more things were troubling her fiance, who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, stemming from his U.S. Army service in the Middle East.

“I knew he’s had depression and anxiety and PTSD,” Braitling said.

In the end, she believes Edgell’s distress was too much for him to cope with and led to Sunday’s incident in which Edgell held a handgun to his head on the Tennessee Valley Authority Reservation.

Police tried to talk with Edgell, but he turned the gun on the officers and fired shots, according to reports. Police returned fire, striking Edgell, who died later that day at Shoals Hospital in Muscle Shoals.

Braitling said she believes Edgell’s emotional state at that moment was compounded by the realization he had landed himself in such trouble.

“I think he did it on purpose, to be honest, because he knew if he fired at them, then they’d have to fire back,” she said. “I don’t think he wanted to go to prison. If he had, he’d have ended up killing himself within a week.”

“We didn’t really talk about it much, because it upset him so much,” Braitling said. “The only time we had talked about it and he could actually tell me anything, he told me he was taking some supplies somewhere with other Humvees and this friend he had gone through everything with — boot camp and all — they went over a mine and it blew up and he saw his friend’s head roll down his back.”
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Texas PTSD Spin Clinic Spun Story

Clinic that got public funds for questionable PTSD study alters its account
Dallas Morning News
By Sue Ambrose and Scott Gordon
Published: 06 October 2015

Cerebrum also said this week that Padilla had resigned from his job at the clinic but was still providing “limited” medical oversight.

An Irving clinic that spent $2 million in taxpayer funds on questionable PTSD research on veterans has a new name.

It now says the doctor it identified as its medical director really wasn’t.

And it has changed the way it describes the services it offers.

The Dallas Morning News and KXAS-TV (NBC5) on Sept. 23 reported on their joint five-month investigation into a state-funded project that tested whether a spinning chair could help veterans suffering from PTSD. Medical experts criticized the research project, saying it wasn’t scientifically sound.

The clinic, registered as a chiropractic facility, changed its name from Carrick Brain Centers to Cerebrum Health Centers. It sought to trademark that name in June.

A clinic spokeswoman said early this week that Dr. Marlon Padilla was not medical director as it had claimed when answering questions for the investigation. The clinic also said this week that it had used the term “medical director” to indicate that Padilla, a physician, was the most senior medical staff member at the center. read more here

This editorial pretty much sums up what is going on all over the country. Folks want to help so they will just fall for anything claiming to work then never bother to check claims against facts, or even demand proof afterwards.


Why did taxpayers fund millions for a gyrating chair?

That’s how Texas taxpayers were bamboozled into funding a $2.2 million study by the Irving-based Carrick Brain Centers that experts say shows no scientific merit for the treatments its advocates assert.

Tax Dollars Paid $68 Million for Independent VA Audit Instead of on Veterans?

McDonald rejects VA’s failing grade audit
Agency head requests bigger budget, says problems largely fixed
The Washington Times
By Anjali Shastry
Wednesday, October 7, 2015

VA Secretary Robert McDonald disputed an audit’s conclusions that his department needs a “systemwide reworking,” saying Wednesday that he’s already fixed many of the problems and what he really needs is a bigger budget and more flexibility to move that money around.

The $68 million independent audit, released last month, said the Department of Veterans Affairs could become a world-class health system if it had better leadership, cut through a bloated bureaucracy and figured out its facilities budget.

But Mr. McDonald, who took over as top leader last year after his predecessor was ousted, said more money would help solve most of the remaining issues.

“The only way forward, if we really want to serve veterans, is for Congress to provide VA with sufficient resources to meet the requirements Congress has set,” Mr. McDonald told the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
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Veterans don't blame the VA, they blame Congress and their history of underfunding the VA as more veterans waited.


As promised, here are a few things left out of the report,

2001

VA said that limiting new enrollments would save the system $142 million this fiscal year. The department said the remainder of the $400 million budget shortfall would be covered by unspecified "management efficiencies."

2002

On Monday, Principi visited the Topeka and Leavenworth VA hospitals, which together make up the consolidated VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System. Members of the Kansas congressional delegation have put increasing pressure on Principi since a budget shortfall of about $9 million was announced. The shortfall is expected to result in job cuts and the loss of some services in Topeka.

The GAO said that VA officials knew in October 2004 that there would be a major shortage.

In all, the bungling by the VA's budget office led to a shortfall of more than $3 billion since 2005, the General Accountability Office found in a report released Wednesday, and those mistakes disrupted health care to 700,000 veterans in Washington state and more than 5 million nationwide. "Unrealistic assumptions, errors in estimation, and insufficient data were key factors in VA's budget formulation process that contributed to the requests for additional funding," the GAO said in its report.

2005

VA Announces $1 Billion Shortfall; Senator Murray Demands Immediate Action
Jun 23 2005
(WASHINGTON, DC) -- In the wake of a Bush Administration announcement that the Veterans Administration has a $1 billion shortfall, Senator Patty Murray today expressed her disappointment and swiftly moved to introduce emergency legislation to fix the problem.

Murray, who has attempted to add funding for veterans care to the budget process three times this year, today once again introduced an emergency supplemental appropriations bill that would allow the VA to meet its obligations to veterans.

The administration announcement comes after repeated assurances that the VA had more than enough money to make it through the fiscal year. During the debate on the FY2006 Budget and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill, Nicholson and other Republican leaders claimed that the VA did not face a crisis.

In April, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson wrote a letter in which he declared, "I can assure you that VA does not need emergency supplemental funds in FY 2005 to continue to provide the timely, quality service that is always our goal." Under question by Senator Murray two weeks ago in the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Nicholson once again repeated his claim that the VA had the money it needs.

2007
Minneapolis VA Clinics were shut down in 2007 soon after they were opened. They were contracted out.

Two recently opened Minneapolis VA clinics in western Wisconsin were abruptly shut down this week by the company under contract to run them. Kentucky-based Corporate Health and Wellness says it lost hundreds of thousands of dollars opening the clinics. It blames the closings on a lack of additional funding from the VA.

2008

St. Louis, reported in 2008 29 Patients at Marion VA died because of substandard and questionable care

The VA investigation found that at least nine deaths between October 2006 and March last year were "directly attributable" to substandard care at the Marion hospital, which serves veterans from southern Illinois, southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky.

Kussman declined to identify those cases by patient or doctor, though Rep. Jerry Costello, an Illinois Democrat, said those nine deaths were linked to two surgeons he did not name.

Of an additional 34 cases the VA investigated, 10 patients who died received questionable care that complicated their health, Kussman said. Investigators could not determine whether the care actually caused the deaths.

Vietnam Veterans of America: President Bush's VA Budget is $3 Billion Short

Shalala: Veterans benefits system is broken

This is the conclusion of Donna Shalala, former secretary of the U.S. Department Health and Human Services during the Clinton administration. President George W. Bush commissioned Shalala, Bob Dole and several other experts to evaluate the care of wounded veterans after the Washington Post exposed dire conditions at Walter Reed Hospital: deteriorating, rat- and roach-infested housing for family members, neglectful staff, and a mind-numbing bureaucracy.

Alabama State Veterans Director Says Veterans Wait 4 Years for VA Claim Appeal

“Since 2006, the number of claims has grown 15 percent. The amount of time it takes to make decisions on disability claims is two to three year. On an average, it takes four years to get an appeals decision.”

VA: $94 billion for 2009 and still $3.3 billion short

“While we are spending more than in previous years, we are still not meeting many of the health care and benefits needs of our veterans,” Murray said.

Last month’s passage of a new GI Bill will add $100 billion in education benefits for veterans over the next 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office said.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and his Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama clashed over the bill last month. McCain opposed it, saying its increased education benefits might encourage troops to leave the military.

Veterans Groups Appalled at White House Veto Threats

A coalition representing millions of America's veterans today expressed outrage at a White House claim that Congress is overspending on veterans programs and has threatened to veto any of the remaining 11 spending bills that exceed the President's request unless Congress finds $2.9 billion in offsets elsewhere in the federal budget.

Under the fiscal year 2009 Military Construction-VA Appropriations bill, the Department of Veterans Affairs would receive $47.7 billion, which is $4.6 billion above the 2008 funding level and $2.9 billion more than the President requested.

In each and every case, Congress held hearings and made promises only to have them repeat over and over again. Just think that those reports are only a few of the ones available online if reporters bothered to look. Do you think that $68 million audit was worth the money spent?

WWII Veteran Still On Mission

At 91, pilot, hero, still on mission
The Journal Gazette
Brian Francisco
Washington editor
October 8, 2015

“For many, many years I spoke every night in my dreams to the 16 guys who I flew with who were killed in World War II, half of my squadron,” he said. Yellen flew 19 combat missions over Japan.

Jerry Yellin stepped off a shuttle bus just before dawn Wednesday and headed toward an airliner when he was intercepted by a teenage girl.

“Thank you for your service,” she told Yellin, giving him a red, white and blue ornament with ribbons displaying the words “brave hero.”

Most if not all of the 86 military veterans boarding Tuesday’s Honor Flight received the trinkets from members of a Whitley County 4-H club. Yellin’s presenter likely did not know it at the time, but her gratitude was directed at the day’s celebrity.

Yellin, 91, was a P-51 fighter pilot who flew the final combat mission of World War II. His wingman on Aug. 14, 1945, Phil Schlamberg, disappeared in the attack over mainland Japan and is considered the last American killed in the war.

Wednesday’s trip was Yellin’s first Honor Flight to visit memorials in Washington, D.C., although the resident of Fairfield, Iowa, had seen them before. The group departed from the Air National Guard’s 122nd Fighter Wing and Fort Wayne International Airport, which began its life as a military air base during WWII.

While in Washington for the day, Yellin was scheduled to place a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

“That, to me, is an honor beyond anything that I’ve ever been involved with,” he said in an interview at the 122nd Fighter Wing along Ferguson Road.

Yellin is the author of four books; a spokesman for Spirit of ’45, an organization that celebrates the WWII generation; and an advocate for aiding veterans who suffer post traumatic stress disorder. He said he battled PTSD for 30 years after serving in the Pacific Theater.

“I thought about suicide, and I stopped flying fighter planes because I knew if I continued to fly, I was going to die, by chance or by choice,” said Yellen, who had been a captain in the Army Air Corps. “I hardly could ever go up in a building, a 10-story, 12-story building, without standing by a window and thinking about jumping.
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Score One For A Good Guy- Army Holds Off on Discharging Martland

Army Delays Discharge of Soldier Who Confronted Accused Afghan Rapist 
Military.com
by Richard Sisk
Oct 06, 2015

"It was not until the Army was forced to shed tens of thousands of soldiers that it opened the QMP process to a population to which it would not otherwise have applied. This is the unfortunate by-product of indiscriminate cuts to our military." Rep. Mac Thornberry

The U.S. Army on Tuesday delayed the discharge of Special Forces Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland who has admitted to roughing up an Afghan police commander accused of sexually abusing a boy.

The action followed a phone call on Martland's behalf from Rep. Mac Thornberry, a Republican from Texas and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, to Army Secretary John McHugh.

The service later issued a statement saying, "Out of respect for Chairman Thornberry's continued strong support for our military, and his personal appeal, Secretary McHugh has agreed to postpone Sgt. First Class Martland's discharge from the Army for 60 days to allow him to file an appeal with the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records."

The New York Times reported last month that in 2011 Martland and Special Forces Capt. Dan Quinn physically confronted an Afghan commander accused of sexually abusing a boy. Quinn has since left the Army and Martland has said he is being forced to retire for intervening.
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Vietnam Veteran Takes HonorAir Flight to Washington DC

First Vietnam veterans to take HonorAir Knoxville flight eager to visit memorials in their honor
WATE ABC News
By Laura Halm
Published: October 6, 2015

MARYVILLE (WATE) – Tickets are purchased and excitement is building for more than 125 East Tennessee veterans.

Wednesday is flight day for Honor Air, but this plane ride to Washington, D.C. is a first for Vietnam veterans. Two of the veterans who will make the flight say they are anxiously waiting to see the memorials built in their honor.

Vietnam veteran Tommy Terry said he is only packing two items: a hat and a camera. “I’m not taking that much. So it won’t take long,” said Tommy Terry.

Tommy Terry said he has waited a long time for the chance to go to Washington, D.C. “When we came back from Vietnam, we were not treated well,” he said. “But this is one of the greatest things.”
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Veteran's Therapy Dog Also Groom's Best "Man"

Wounded Veteran's Therapy Dog Serves as Best Man at Wedding 
ABC News
By Will Ganss
Oct 5, 2015

This past weekend, Gabe had his paws full with an entirely new slew of responsibilities, serving as the best man in Lansford’s wedding to longtime girlfriend, Carol Balmes.

U.S. Army veteran Justin Lansford tied the knot with longtime girlfriend

Carol Balmes with his canine companion, Gabe, at his side.

It's been quite a journey for U.S. Army veteran Justin Lansford and his canine companion, Gabe. In 2012, Lansford lost his left leg in an IED explosion in Afghanistan.

"I was a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division and we were in eastern Afghanistan in early 2012," he told Lara Spencer in 2014. "We struck an IED and it flipped my truck completely. I had bilaterally severed femurs which resulted in the amputation of my left leg."
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Family of PTSD Veteran Can Sue After Police Shooting

Judge allows lawsuit against Maine officer who killed veteran to go forward
Bangor Daily News
By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted Oct. 06, 2015

PORTLAND, Maine — A federal judge has ruled that an excessive force lawsuit over the death of a troubled Army veteran may go forward but only against the officer, not the police chief or the town of Farmington.

The parents of a veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who was shot and killed nearly four years ago in front of the Farmington police station filed a wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit in 2013 against the town, Police Chief Jack Peck, and Ryan Rosie, the officer who shot and killed Justin Michael Crowley-Smilek on Nov. 19, 2011.

The Maine attorney general’s office in May 2012 found that Rosie was justified in shooting Crowley-Smilek, 26, of Farmington. The report said that Rosie took cover behind a police cruiser after Crowley-Smilek ignored demands that he take his hands out of his pockets. Rosie fired after the veteran took a butcher knife out of his pocket and charged at the officer.

The lawsuit, filed in November 2013 in federal court in Portland by Hunter Tzovarras, the Bangor attorney representing Crowley-Smilek’s parents, claimed that the veteran went to the Farmington police station the day he was killed to ask for help “regarding mental health services.”
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Jennifer Aniston to Play Soldier's Mom in New Movie

Jack Huston and Jennifer Aniston Join War Pic ‘The Yellow Birds’
Deadline Hollywood
by Anita Busch
October 6, 2015

EXCLUSIVE: Jack Huston is stepping into the role previously eyed by Benedict Cumberbatch in war drama The Yellow Birds opposite Tye Sheridan and Alden Ehrenreich. Jennifer Aniston also is joining the film directed by the project’s new director, Alexandre Moors. Based on the novel by Iraq War vet Kevin Powers, the film marks the second project to go before the cameras for Mark Canton and Courtney Solomon’s Cinelou Films.

It was first announced for sale at Cannes with Cumberbatch, Sheridan and Will Poulter starring and David Lowery directing. Lowery adapted the book with Powers for the screen.

Financed by Cinelou, the story follows two young soldiers who become friends in boot camp and the elder (the 21-year-old Ehrenreich) promises to take care of his buddy (Sheridan), but it becomes increasingly difficult in wartime. Huston plays Staff Sgt. Sterling. Aniston plays the younger boy’s mother.
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On the Ground
‘The Yellow Birds,’ by Kevin Powers
New York Times
By BENJAMIN PERCY
OCT. 4, 2012

Joao Silva for The New York Times

At the age of 17, Kevin Powers enlisted in the Army and eventually served as a machine-gunner in Iraq, where the sky is “vast and catacombed with clouds,” where soldiers stay awake on fear and amphetamines and Tabasco sauce daubed into their eyes, where rifles bristle from rooftops and bullets sound like “small rips in the air.” Now he has channeled his experience into “The Yellow Birds,” a first novel as compact and powerful as a footlocker full of ammo.

In the northern city of Al Tafar, 21-year-old Pvt. John Bartle and his platoon engage in a bloody campaign to control the city. Before his deployment Bartle promised the mother of 18-year-old Pvt. Daniel Murphy he would take care of her son, bring him back alive. It is a promise that, as Powers reveals from the earliest pages, he will not keep. But in the meantime they suffer through basic training together, followed by Iraqi street fights that leave rooftops covered in brass casings and doorsteps splashed with blood — all under the command of the growly, battle-­scarred Sergeant Sterling, who punches them in the face one moment and claps them on the back the next, ordering them to combat both the insurgents and the mental stress that threaten to send them home in a box with a flag draped over the top.
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