Female Iraq Veteran Says "It’s About Time" For Combat Jobs

‘It’s About Time,’ Says San Diego Female Combat Veteran On Pentagon Decision 
Historic decision opens approximately 220,000 military combat jobs to women
KPBS News
By Susan Murphy
December 4, 2015

“Most people didn’t know I was a female because you’re completely covered in flak jackets and Kevlar."

Women can now serve in all military combat roles, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Thursday.

By Susan Murphy Natalie Slattery, a Navy veteran who served in ground combat in Iraq in 2008 as a convoy gunner, talks about her experience outside the San Diego Veterans Museum in Balboa Park, Dec. 3, 2015.

The historic decision will open approximately 220,000 jobs to women and clear the way for them to serve in battle-hardened roles, including the Navy SEALs, as long as they can meet the rigorous requirements.

Carter also acknowledged that women have been serving for years on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I’m very happy that they’ve made it public now for people to know. It’s about time," said San Diego Navy veteran Natalie Slattery, 28, who served in ground combat in Iraq in 2008.

Female pilots flew through combat zones, female medics treated the wounded on the front lines and all-female teams known as “lionesses” accompanied troops in house-to-house searches.

Slattery was a convoy gunner — a position that wasn’t typically open to women.

“I was that person you see on top of all the trucks and in all the gear,” Slattery said.
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Donald Trump Talks About Veterans Charities, End of Story

When It Comes To Veterans, Donald Trump's Rhetoric Is Much More Generous Than His Giving Record 
Forbes
Emily Canal
December 3, 2015

“Donald Trump is not a leader in veterans’ philanthropy, unless he’s donated a lot of money that nobody knows about,” Paul Rieckhoff, founder and chief executive of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told The New York Times in July.

Although he’s not going to get it, Donald Trump demanded $5 million from CNN this week to appear in the network’s next debate. The billionaire added that he would donate the money to veterans and the Wounded Warriors Foundation. That would be $4.94 million more than his charitable foundation has given veterans in recent years, Forbes found.

The Donald J. Trump Foundation has donated $5.5 million to 298 charities between 2009 and 2013 (the most recent year available), according to the non-profit’s 990 tax forms from those years. Of that, only $57,000 has been donated to seven organizations that directly benefit military veterans or their families, Forbes found. Wounded Warriors was not among the organizations Trump’s foundation gave to in that time period.
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WWII 90 Year Old Veteran Gets Back Home

WWII veteran buys his home back in time for holidays with stranger's help
Christian Science Monitor
By Beatrice Gitau Staff
DECEMBER 4, 2015

A stranger rallied a community around a World War II veteran who was evicted from his home to help him buy it back.

Johnnie H. Hodges Sr., 90, lost his home of 60 years in Buffalo, New York after being behind in his mortgage payments for years.

The Buffalo News published a story about Mr. Hodges’s situation in July when authorities physically removed him from his home after a local bank foreclosed on the house.

According to the paper, Hodge missed making his monthly mortgage payments while caring for his wife, Flora, who was ill and passed away last year.

Since then, dozens of people have been moved to help, some offering money and others shelter.

Despite not knowing Hodges, businessman Greg Elwood of Williamsville, New York, stepped in and established a GoFundMe online account to raise funds for the Navy veteran. To Mr. Elwood's surprise, more than $110,000 was collected in five months.
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Camp Lejeune Marines and Soldiers Saved Couple from Burning Car

Marine from Virginia rescues couple from burning car on I-95
ABC 8 News
By Emily Satchell
Published: December 3, 2015

Sgt. Rivera stopped outside the driver door when he realized smoke was billowing from what remained of the car’s engine. He quickly mobilized other bystanders to help the woman in the passenger seat. Several of them were active duty Marines and soldiers.

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (WRIC) — A couple had something extra special to be thankful for last week after they were rescued from a burning vehicle on Interstate 95 by a Marine just one day before Thanksgiving.

Sgt. Ian Rivera left Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune around 1 p.m. that day. He was driving north on I-95 to spend Thanksgiving with family in Caroline County.

About three hours into Sgt. Rivera’s drive, a four-vehicle accident happened four miles south of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. A couple in a Mazda 3 took the brunt of the crash, according to a press release from the Marines.

“I was about two cars behind,” said Rivera, a native of Virginia Beach. “I jumped out onto the shoulder of the left side of the road and ran to them. I wanted to make sure they were okay.”
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Armed Patient In Custody After VA Nurse Held Hostage

Patient holds nurse at gunpoint in VA hospital
KUSA
Blair Shiff
December 3, 2015

DENVER - A hostage situation at the VA Medical Center near East 10th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard is now over.

According to the VA Police, they initially responded at 8:20 a.m. on Thursday.

A man who was a patient at the hospital took a nurse practitioner hostage inside an exam room on the eighth floor. VA officials say he held a loaded gun to the nurse during the hostage situation.
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Police Probe Suicide of Veteran Seeking VA Mental Health Care

VA, police probe veteran's death 
Times Union By Dennis Yusko and J.P. Lawrence
December 3, 2015

"It's absolutely horrible and very heartbreaking," said Gena Hulse, 51, a Navy veteran from Gloversville who is being treated for PTSD at the Albany VA. "Veterans are outraged. We were wondering if he was given thorough enough care."

The military veteran who fell to his death at the Samuel S. Stratton Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center Hospital was an enigmatic ex-Marine who had been discharged from the hospital's psychiatric unit 90 minutes earlier, according to city police and those who knew him.

Stewart A. Mosher, 34, appeared to have jumped from the top level of the parking garage on the VA campus just after noon on Nov. 27, according to a police report obtained by the Times Union. Five people, including a VA employee and a nurse from Albany Medical Center Hospital, witnessed Mosher hit the pavement in front of 67 Veterans Way, police said.

Mosher lived in Selkirk and joined the Marine Corps right after graduating from New Lebanon Junior-Senior High School in 2000. Four years later, he was discharged with post-traumatic stress disorder, which he self-medicated with "entheogens," or psychoactive drugs, he wrote on his Facebook page. Emergency responders were called to the VA around 12:10 p.m. last Friday and found Mosher unconscious and unresponsive, according to police.
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Disabled Veteran Jumped From Philadelphia VA Hospital

Stolen Valor in Australia Too

Ex-serviceman Timothy Koch fined for falsely claiming to have served in Afghanistan 
ABC Australia
By court reporter James Hancock
Posted about 3 hours ago

An ex-serviceman from Port Lincoln in South Australia who falsely claimed to have served in Afghanistan has been convicted and fined $1,000.

PHOTO: Port Lincoln man Timothy Koch (left) was fined $1,000 for falsely claiming to have served in Afghanistan after he was pictured in the Port Lincoln Times. (Port Lincoln Times)

Timothy Robert Koch, 25, was too scared to appear in court at Port Lincoln after a website exposed his fraud, the court heard.

Koch enlisted in the Army in March 2008 and completed basic training in Darwin, before being honourably discharged in June 2010 after injuring his wrist during combat drills.

He pleaded guilty through his lawyer to falsely representing himself to be a returned soldier after being photographed by the Port Lincoln Times at a local RSL club on Remembrance Day last year wearing Afghanistan war medals.

His lawyer, Rachael Shaw, said Koch was deeply ashamed of his actions.
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Navy Seal Veteran Death Organs Donated After Shooting

Slain SEAL's family recalls his integrity, puzzles over death
Tampa Tribune
By Howard Altman Tribune Staff
Published: December 2, 2015

Timothy Martin, 37, had gone to the SoHo Backyard, at 610 Armenia Ave., where Jeffrey Glenn, 33, an acquaintance and co-owner of the business, was working, police said

TAMPA — At the kitchen table of their brother’s South Tampa apartment, Nate and Hannah Fager smiled through pain as they shared their memories of him — Timothy Isaac Martin, a former Navy SEAL, military contractor, champion athlete, class clown and doting dad.

The siblings, along with their mother and other family members, came to Tampa when they heard the news that Martin was shot early Sunday morning at a South Tampa restaurant and bar, SoHo Backyard.

He died the next day at 37, his organs harvested so others might live.

“He was a good man,” said Hannah Fager, 33, sitting with her siblings among photos of Martin and his 4-year-old son Rocco. “He was a man of integrity.”

The Fager siblings, part of a blended bunch of 13 children, some adopted, recalled growing up so poor that they relied on donated food and Christmas gifts from strangers. They moved a lot before settling down in a small town in Wisconsin.

They recalled how Martin, a man of many passions, spent nearly four years studying to become a priest, only to join the Navy and become a SEAL. And how he left the SEALs in 2007, in part because he could not kill. And how Martin spent time overseas as a contractor, earning the kind of money he never knew growing up, and sharing as much as he could with those he loved.

They also remembered how Martin was proud, but not boastful, at serving as an advisor and making an appearance in the films, “Green Zone,” and “Zero Dark Thirty.”

But they also shared their frustration, eager to learn more about how and why their brother, unarmed, was shot by Jeffrey Glenn, the bar’s co-owner. Police say the two men were fighting when Glenn went to grab his gun.
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Vietnam Veteran's Wife Gets Probation After He Died

Wife receives probation for failing to provide care for impaired Vietnam veteran
Ohio.com
Beacon Journal staff report
December 2, 2015

A woman received 12 months of probation after pleading guilty to a felony charge of failing to provide care for an impaired person in connection with the death of her husband in what police called “deplorable conditions” at their Onandago Trail home in Springfield Township, authorities said Wednesday.

Dorothy Marie “Dottie” Matwiju, 57, pleaded guilty to the fourth-degree felony last week in Summit County Common Pleas Judge Lynne Callahan’s court.

He was dead at the scene, according to an autopsy report. Police said that Matwiju (pronounced Mah-TWEE-yoo) weighed 84 pounds.

Case records show his last driver’s license listed him as 6 feet tall, 190 pounds.
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Judge Fights for Green Beret Veteran Kicked Out of USF

USF trustees pass on Holder's request to readmit expelled U.S. Army vet
Tampa Bay Times
Tony Marrero Times Staff Writer
Thursday, December 3, 2015

TAMPA — Despite a plea from Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Gregory Holder, the University of South Florida Board of Trustees on Thursday did not to act on a request to readmit a former U.S. Army Green Beret expelled after firing his gun at a Tampa gas station.

None of the 12 board members present brought up Holder's request for discussion after he spoke for three minutes on behalf of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Clary Allred, who needs 17 credits to graduate.

Allred was convicted of last year of aggravated assault and other charges in the county's Veterans Treatment Court, which Holder oversees.

Saying he came "not with a frontal assault but on bended knee," Holder urged the board to intervene. Typically, board members don't get involved in admissions decisions.

Hassan, 29, followed Allred outside to get his tag number and Allred pulled an AR-15 rifle from his Jeep and held it at his side in a threatening manner, police said. After a few more exchanged words, Allred handed Hassan a $100 bill, got in his Jeep and fired another weapon, a Glock handgun, into the air three times as he drove away.
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