Sculpture Left At The Wall Allows View Into Remains of War

Sculpture left by widow at Vietnam Wall shows the tragic effects of war
Washington Post
By Michael E. Ruane
September 20, 2016

The object was the painted bust of an American soldier, one side of the face depicting a smooth-skinned young serviceman, the other an aged, long-haired veteran with pocked features and a tearful, staring eye.

The sculpture was packed in bubble wrap inside a taped-up box and was wheeled on a dolly to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial one day last month by three people who looked to be in their 60s.

They asked Al Gallant, a volunteer guide, if it was okay to leave a memento. Sure, he said. They pushed the cart down the path to the Wall, took the sculpture from the box, and walked away. One of them paused to snap a picture as they departed.

What they had left was an unusual piece — “macabre,” Gallant called it. And, like many of the 400,000 items left at the Wall since 1982, it had a story.
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Marine on Leave Shot in Back of His Head in Los Angeles

UPDATE 2 convicted of murdering Marine on home visit to Los Angeles

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office says 28-year-old Oscar Aguilar and 31-year-old Esau Rios were convicted Thursday of murder and shooting at an occupied vehicle. Aguilar was also convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon.

FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2016, file photo, Marine pallbearers prepare the flag-draped coffin with the remains of Lance Cpl. Carlos A. Segovia-Lopez, during his funeral service at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. A jury has convicted two gang members in the killing of the 19-year-old Marine on a home visit to Los Angeles in 2016. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office says Oscar Aguilar and Esau Rios were convicted Thursday, May 30, 2019, of murder and shooting at an occupied vehicle. Aguilar was also convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool, File)

UPDATE
Camp Pendleton Marine dies three days after he was mysteriously shot and left for dead in South L.A.

U.S. MARINE SHOT IN HEAD IN SOUTH LA WHILE ON MILITARY LEAVE
ABC News
September 18, 2016

Undated photos of 19-year-old Carlos Segovia, who was shot in the head in South Los Angeles on Friday, Sept. 16, 2016. (Facebook: Laurie Mitchell/Claudia Perez )

SOUTH LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A young U.S. Marine has been declared brain dead Sunday after getting shot in the back of the head in South Los Angeles, L.A. police officials said.

According to LAPD Media Relations officials, Carlos Segovia was shot once in the head near 31st Street and Western Avenue at about 11:30 p.m. Friday. Police said a vehicle pulled up beside his, and a suspect or suspects opened fire.

Segovia was not in uniform when he was shot, according to authorities. The family of Segovia contacted ABC7 using the hashtag #abc7eyewitness and said the 19-year-old was home on military leave.

For several years, Segovia volunteered for a group that feeds the homeless, and six months ago, he became a U.S. Marine to serve his country, his family said.
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Army Kicked Out 73 Soldiers Without Checking For PTSD or TBI

Army: 73 soldiers may have been improperly sent home with TBI, PTSD
Federal News Radio
Jared Serbu
September 19, 2016

Of those 394, an internal audit identified 73 cases where there was no evidence that commanders even considered whether PTSD or TBI was a factor in the underlying offense that prompted their discharge.

The Army is reexamining the cases of at least 73 soldiers who it kicked out under other-than-honorable circumstances between 2009 and 2015 because it may have run afoul of a federal law intended to help ensure troops aren’t punished for mental health issues that were actually caused by their military service.

At issue is a provision in the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that requires all the military branches to consider whether service-connected behavioral health might have played a role in whatever misconduct officials are using as their reasoning for separating a military member.

Any service member who’s served in a combat zone in the previous two years and who’s also been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress or traumatic brain injury is supposed to receive additional scrutiny before commanders discharge him or her for a law or rule violation — particularly since a less-than-honorable discharge makes them ineligible for mental health treatment or any other veterans benefits.

Eric Fanning, the secretary of the Army, formally notified Congress in an Aug. 25 letter that the service had identified a total of 394 soldiers who had PTSD or TBI diagnoses in their medical records, were sent home with less-than-honorable discharges and had deployed to serve in contingency operations sometime in the 24 months before they were kicked out. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) released the letter late last week.
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American Legion 100 Years of Dedication

One of nation's largest veterans organizations, American Legion celebrates 100 years
The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.) (Tribune News Service)
By Tom Roeder
Published: September 18, 2016

Additionally, it provides educational programs for students and its post are loaded with community volunteers - its 2.4 million members provide nearly 4 million hours of community service annually - which Schmidt thinks could be key for growing the Legion.

The American Legion is hoping its upcoming 100th birthday will bring renewal to one of the nation's largest and quickly graying veterans organizations.

The Legion's national commander, Charles Schmidt, said during a weeklong Colorado visit that he wants the organization to focus on its accomplishments and press forward with programs for children in a bid to draw younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan to its ranks.

"That's where the rubber meets the road," said Schmidt, an Air Force retiree from eastern Oregon.

Schmidt, who served nearly 27 years in the Air Force, said he was a reluctant Legionnaire at the start.
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1st Lt. Katie Blanchard Set on Fire, Third and Fourth Degree Burns

Crowdfunding quickly raises $44,000 for soldier recovering from brutal hospital attack
Army Times
September 17, 2016

Blanchard has three children under the age of five that she raises with her husband, also a soldier in the Army.

A crowdfunding effort quickly raised tens of thousands of dollars for a hospitalized lieutenant set on fire in suffering severe burns. A civilian subordinate is accused of attacking the officer on Sept. 7 at Munson Army Health Center in Kansas.

The GoFundMe page for 1st Lt. Katie Blanchard, 26, has raised nearly $44,000 since Monday. The page said her injuries included “severe burns to her head, neck, back, arms and hands — mostly third and fourth degree,” and that she would be in the hospital or rehab for most of the next year.

An update to the page late Wednesday said she had undergone successful skin graft surgery Monday, and that Tuesday Blanchard spoke for the first time since she was injured. The update also said the family closed the campaign to donations because it had raised more than enough money for its current needs; excess money will be donated to charity.
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Veterans Stand Watch On Bridge to Prevent Suicides and Spread Hope

Vets Stand Watch Around the Clock on Colorado Street Bridge to Prevent Suicides, Spread Awareness
Pasadena Now
Story and Photography by BRANDON VILLALOVOS
Published : Sunday, September 18, 2016

“Our veterans at Wellness Works decided that it is just not acceptable. It was their idea to do this. These veterans that commit suicide are losing their last battle with PTSD and we need the community’s help with all of this. We simply cannot do this by ourselves,” said Lynch.

Military veterans set up post on Pasadena’s Colorado Bridge for three days in effort to help prevent suicide and spread awareness about the epidemic that takes the lives of around 22 vets each day. Their around-the-clock shifts from Thursday through Saturday aimed to draw the attention from the community and shed a light on the impact of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on veterans that often results in taking their own lives.

“They’re walking back and forth on the bridge in shifts ranging from one to two hours in memory of those who killed themselves to let other veterans who are in despair at this moment know that they have their backs,” said Kathy Lynch, Clinical Director of Glendale non-profit Wellness Works that created this event in collaboration with local veterans. Wellness Works engages the community in restoring hope and a sense of wholeness of body and soul to veterans and their families through events like this one, according to organization’s website.

The Colorado Bridge campout known as “Not On Our Watch 2016” is the result of concerned veterans that were tired of seeing their brothers in arms fall down the road of depression that often leads to suicide, according to Lynch.
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WWII Veteran Swindled Out of Money Finds Hope From Real Friends

WWII veteran has new hope after losing almost everything
KOB 4 News
Brittany Costello
September 16, 2016

Hundreds of thousands of dollars gone, two savings accounts drained. Now a World War Two Veteran is just trying to get by after he said he was scammed out of all that money by his two so-called caretakers.

It's a story we first brought you in July: Caregivers accused of scamming 95-year-old Santa Fe man. But, Friday, Sept. 16, KOB sat down with 95-year-old Dennis Ferk, who has had to make some huge changes, including selling his home.

He is a former army sergeant who was awarded three Purple Hearts, two Bronze Stars and two presidential citations for his service.

But now, he’s fighting a much different battle. He spends most days trying get his finances back in order. He said at first, the two helped with yard and house work, and then took over his finances.

“I thought they were my friends but what they were after was taking care of themselves,” said Ferk.

He said over two years they took around $340,000 of his money. Money that was set aside, not for vacations or shopping sprees, but to care for his disabled daughter whose brain never fully developed.
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UK: Heroes Cannot Live With Trauma of PTSD

For all the global awareness of PTSD and suicides, this is the result. They managed to survive combat with every anguishing moment yet too many cannot survive living in their own countries. So when do we stop the bullshit of raising awareness they are suffering and actually tell them how they can heal?

Tragedy of the Afghanistan and Iraq Army heroes who cannot live with the trauma of PTSD
Mirror UK
BY SEAN RAYMENT , PHIL CARDY , JONATHAN CORKE
18 SEP 2016

One serviceman or woman commits suicide almost every two weeks, official figures have revealed and nearly 400 have taken their lives between 1995 and 2014

Lee Alan Dodgson is the latest of 400 troops to

lose their lives due to post traumatic stress

Lee Alan DodgsonLee Alan Dodgson is the latest of 400 troops to lose their lives due to post traumatic stress

He survived tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and Bosnia – but it was a silent killer that claimed the life of Lee Dodgson.

Only 40, the ex-soldier was found lying near the spot where his father’s ashes were scattered.

For years the dad-of-one had been failed by authorities in his fight with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Speaking shortly after Lee’s funeral, his stepmum Roseann told us: “Post-traumatic stress disorder is underrated. It’s a silent killer. It’s not recognised quick enough.

“He has said he was told that you don’t show your emotions, you hold them in. They, the soldiers, aren’t taught how to deal with it.”

One serviceman or woman commits suicide almost every two weeks, official figures have revealed.

Nearly 400 have taken their lives between 1995 and 2014.

Today the Sunday People highlights Lee’s tragic story and demands change.
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PTSD: Bomb Technician Suicides At Crisis Level

Suicides among military bomb techs at crisis level
Pensacola News Journal
Melissa Nelson Gabriel
September 17, 2106

"For every IED you disarm, you save between one and 10 lives, but there is always another one you cannot take care of that gets hit. There becomes a point where it haunts your nightmares and it haunts your thoughts during the day." Air Force Sgt. Chris Ferrell

Danelle Hackett wanted her Marine husband to focus on the lives he saved disarming IEDs as a military bomb technician during two tours in Iraq.

Maj. Jeff Hackett and his wife, Danelle. Danelle didn't know what to do to help

her husband when he returned from his dangerous combat tours diffusing explosives.

(Photo: Special to the News Journal)

Maj. Jeff Hackett could only focus on his 16 colleagues who died during the dangerous bomb disposal missions he led from early 2005 through late 2007.

"My husband looked at those guys as his own family, his own sons. Repeatedly losing techs just wore on him and wore him. He blamed himself for every death," Danelle Hackett said.

In June 2010, after a day of drinking at an American Legion Post in Wyoming near the family's home, Jeff Hackett downed a couple more swigs of alcohol, said "cheers" and shot and killed himself.

Among the highly skilled and elite ranks of military explosive ordnance disposal technicians — the men and women who have been on the front line of the war on terror since Sept. 11, 2001 — suicide is a growing concern.

"It is literally an epidemic," said Ken Falke, a former EOD technician and founder of the Niceville-based EOD Warrior Foundation, which supports current and former military EOD techs and their families.

EOD tech Air Force Sgt. Chris Ferrell has attempted suicide four times. He has a sleeve of tattoos on his arm with 26 stars, each one represents a friend he lost on the battlefield. (Photo: Special to the News Journal)

Air Force Sgt. Chris Ferrell, a 32-year-old EOD tech who has had many combat deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 13 years, has attempted suicide four times.

He has a sleeve of tattoos on his arm with 26 shaded-in stars, each one represents a friend he has lost on the battlefield.
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Philadelphia Police Officer Survives Being Shot Eight Times During Ambush

Suspect in Philadelphia Shooting Rampage Left Note Showing Hatred Toward Police, Officers Say
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHILADELPHIA
By MEGAN TRIMBLE
Sep 17, 2016

The wild chase and shootout through the streets of Philadelphia began about 11:20 p.m. Friday when Sgt. Sylvia Young, a 19-year police veteran, was ambushed while sitting in her patrol car in west Philadelphia; she was shot a number of times in the arm and protective vest, Ross said.

"She didn't hear him say a word, just walked up on her and started firing," Ross said. "She did hear about 15 shots or so, and that's consistent with the scene, where we believe she was struck at least eight times."

PHOTO: An aerial view of police activity of a shooting in Philadelphia on September 16, 2016.WPVI-TV

A "rambling" note expressing hatred for police was found after a man opened fire on a Philadelphia police officer then went on a shooting rampage, injuring a second officer, killing a woman and wounding three other people before he was shot and killed by police in an alley, authorities said Saturday.

Police Commissioner Richard Ross identified the gunman in the Friday overnight attack as 25-year-old Nicholas Glenn, who was "well-known" to police and has a criminal record.

Ross said Glenn had a 9mm Ruger and at least three magazines as well as a plastic bag with 13 to 15 live rounds. Investigators were trying to track the origins of the weapon, which had an obliterated serial number.

"Obviously, he was hell-bent on hurting a lot of people," the commissioner said at a news conference, adding that "we aren't absolutely clear as to why."

The note was addressed "Doomed People" and expressed hatred for law enforcement and a probation officer; it was found on the gunman, Ross said. Police believe Glenn acted on his own and not as part of a group.
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