Army veteran shot by police at VA clinic faces charges Associated Press By ANDREW SELSKY Published: January 30, 2018
Negrete's service record, obtained by The AP from the U.S. Army Human Resources Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky, shows that Negrete served in Iraq for one year starting in October 2008 and then in Afghanistan from October 2010 to August 2011.
SALEM, Ore. — An Army veteran who was shot during a confrontation inside a Veterans Affairs clinic in Oregon where he went to seek help for mental problems was in jail Tuesday, charged with attempted assault, unlawful use of a weapon, menacing and other crimes.
Gilbert "Matt" Negrete allegedly displayed a knife Thursday after arriving at the clinic in White City, where he had an appointment. The Jackson County Sheriff's Office said VA police tried "less-lethal force options" to disarm Negrete before one of the officers fired, hitting him in the chest. Negrete, 34, was flown to a hospital in nearby Medford. No one else was injured.
Negrete was released from the hospital Saturday and is in the county jail with bail set at $250,000, Deputy District Attorney Laura Cromwell told The Associated Press. Negrete was arraigned Monday via a video hookup from jail, Cromwell said. He is being provided with a public defender.
Authorities will convene a grand jury later this week which will determine whether to indict Negrete, Cromwell said in a telephone interview. She anticipates that his attorney will urge the grand jury to take Negrete's military history into account. At least five of seven jurors must concur for the case to move forward. read more here
Homelessness among veterans rises in D.C. Resources shift to meet needs as spike opposite to nationwide reduction Washington Times By Julia Airey January 30, 2018
Veteran Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin has expressed concern that homelessness among former troops in the District has inched higher, even as it has fallen nationwide.
Army veteran Bernin Gibson, 82, leans his pack of donated winter clothes against a bollard near the Washington DC VA Medical Center on Saturday after the Winterhaven service fare. Mr. Gibson has attended Winterhaven since it began 24 years ago. (Julia Airey / The Washington Times)
“We are very committed to ending veteran homelessness,” Mr. Shulkin told The Washington Times during his agency’s recent Winterhaven homelessness services fair at the Washington DC VA Medical Center. “This has been a journey which started in 2010 where we made significant progress across the country — a 46 percent reduction nationally. But last year we actually went backwards with a 2 percent increase.”
According to the annual “Point-in-Time” tally of people sleeping outdoors in winter, the District counted 672 homeless in 2017, up from 350 in 2016. The data from last week’s PIT tally will be available in May.
In addition, 14.1 percent of the District’s 28,400 veterans were reported living in poverty in 2016, up from 10.5 percent in 2015, according to the Census Bureau.
Citing poverty as a leading risk factor for homelessness, federal and local providers of human services have begun shifting resources to address the needs of veterans at risk of becoming homeless. read more here
Ex-Army sergeant 'jumped out of a coffin during a funeral practice for a young soldier who died at Deepcut barracks in a "disgusting and disrespectful" prank as inquest hears cadets were asked to clean up his blood after he shot himself Daily Mail By Richard Spillett for MailOnline 30 January 2018
Private was the first of four recruits to die at Army barracks in seven years Former comrade tells inquest a sergeant jumped out of coffin at funeral practice Sergeant is said to have pushed recruits 'to the limit' and 'didn't like' late soldier A friend said he was told to clear up blood and remove evidence of the shooting
A new inquest is being held into Pte Sean Benton's death the Deepcut Army barracks in 1995
He told the inquest in Woking, Surrey today that former sergeant Andrew Gavaghan jumped out of a makeshift coffin - which had originally been filled with sandbags - as soldiers carried it during a practice session ahead of the funeral.
A former Army sergeant hid inside and jumped out of a makeshift coffin which was being used by soldiers to practice for the funeral of a young recruit who had died in a shooting at the controversial Deepcut barracks, a coroner heard today.
Pte Sean Benton was found dead with five bullet wounds to his chest on June 9, 1995. The 20-year-old was the first of four recruits to die at the Surrey barracks in seven years, a new inquest into his death has heard.
Former fellow recruit and close friend Neil Williams was initially refused permission by officers to attend the funeral but was finally allowed when Pte Benton's mother, Linda, requested him was a pallbearer.
Mr Williams also told how he was asked to take part in the clear-up at the site of Pte Benton's shooting. read more here
Local veterans reach out to sheriff's office to help veterans struggling with PTSD Payson Roundup by Alexis Bechman roundup staff reporter Jan 30, 2018
After reading that sheriff’s deputies had shot and killed a disturbed young veteran who had threatened deputies with a shotgun, two local Vietnam veterans were moved to do something.
Bud Huffman and Jim Muhr left the service decades ago, but have had to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder ever since.
Now they hope to reach out to other local veterans struggling to avoid another such tragedy.
In June, Jacob Brown had a PTSD attack on his birthday near his home in Beaver Valley Estates. Frightened, Brown’s wife fled the area with their children and went to Prescott to stay with family. Alone, Brown stormed around the two-story rental. Surveillance cameras, which Brown had installed inside and outside the home, picked up his movements.
On the phone, Brown told his uncle he wanted to kill himself, but couldn’t reach the trigger on his shotgun. His uncle called 911 for help. The two deputies had moved onto the porch with guns drawn when Brown stormed out of his home. Brown ignored orders to put down his weapon, so the officers fired on him.
“When I read that article it broke my heart,” Muhr said. “There are a lot of veterans that need a lot of help. Bud and I wanted to do something and with our backgrounds in PTSD, we felt we understand what veterans are going through.”
Both Muhr and Huffman recently met with GCSO supervisors, deputies and correctional officers in both Payson and Globe to offer their assistance as members of the Payson Veterans Advocacy Committee. Generally, officers have little training in how to deal with someone suffering from PTSD and the sheriff’s office doesn’t have a special unit to deal with things like a confrontation with a mentally ill person or even a hostage-taking situation. read more here
When I think about regular people, like me, losing hope to the point where they commit suicide, it is heartbreaking. Hope is what keeps all of us from giving up this life we have. Often it is not enough to love others, if we feel as if we do not deserve to be loved. There was a time in my life when I felt that way. While I did not attempt suicide, I prayed that God would to it for me. I lost hope, a sense of self worth, but above those, I lost faith that God even cared about me. When the people committing suicide were those who dedicated their lives to saving others, it is beyond heartbreaking. If you are among those in the military, veterans, police, firefighters and first responders, please read the prayer I wrote for you because after all these years of working with some of you, that is what I see within all of you!
Indiana National Guard soldier dies at Fort Hood in Texas By: The Associated Press Published: Sunday, January 07, 2018
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana National Guard says one of its soldiers has died after arriving for training at Fort Hood in Texas.
Indiana Guard officials said 43-year-old Sgt. 1st Class Mark Boner of Fort Wayne died early Saturday. The Guard didn't release information about the circumstances of his death, saying it was under investigation.
Boner was a member of the Kokomo-based 38th Sustainment Brigade. About 250 members of the unit left last week for training at Fort Hood ahead of a deployment to Kuwait.
read more here
A soldier caught on fire while rescuing people from a burning car. It didn't stop him Ledger Enquirer Scott Berson January 29, 2018
"As I was [unbuckling her seatbelt] the whole vehicle caught fire, and I just felt a blanket of fire wrap around my body, and everything just happened in a matter of seconds from there," Davis said in an Army news release.. "But before I could get the other half of her body out, she caught fire from all the fuel that was on her. I noticed she was on fire [shortly] before noticing that I was on fire too."
Maj. Gen. Andrew Poppas, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) commanding general, pins the Soldier's Medal on Staff Sgt. Nicholas Davis, C Battery, 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) artillery cannon crew member and section chief, during a ceremony held at Fort Campbell, Jan. 22, 2018. Sgt. Samantha Stoffregen Special to the Ledger-Enquirer
It was a normal summer day on June 9, 2017 when Staff Sgt. Nicholas Davis, C Battery, 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Artillery cannon crew member and section chief, was driving home to Ellijay, Ga., from Fort Campbell in Kentucky.
As he was cruising down the road near Nashville, he noticed a car overturned on its passenger side. It had flipped almost completely over, coming to rest on a slight downward slope, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Few other drivers seemed concerned, according to the Army.
"I was pulling up, and I noticed there was a small engine fire underneath the belly of the car, so I jumped out and ran up to the vehicle," Davis said.
When he reached the car, he found two people, Rick and Sharon Steiert, trapped in the vehicle. Most distressingly, a can of fuel that had been in the back of the car had tumbled during the crash. It had now become wedged under Sharon's legs, and she was covered in gasoline. read more here
Combat PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos January 28, 2018
There seems to be a lot of confusion about something that should not confuse anyone after all these years. Human beings are not helpless because others are there to help them. Those others, you, pay a deeper price than anyone else. For you, it is a matter of facing life or death situations over and over again because you chose it as your job to do. When you are one of those rare ones putting the lives of others ahead of your own, that is what a hero does. Sure, you may get uncomfortable with that word and think of others you served with as more worthy of that title, but to the rest of us, that is exactly what you are. There is a price you pay for what is inside of you. The same courage that made you want to do that job in the first place, is waiting for you to have the courage to ask for help. In other words, it may be time to call for backup! If you see yourself as a victim, then you may be not even thinking of that in the right way. Do you feel the "victims" you risked your life for were worthy of the effort? After all, you managed to be there so they went from "victim" to survivor. Didn't you? If what caused the PTSD did not win when it happened, then why let it defeat you now? You are a survivor of what happened yesterday and it became part of you but did not change you. It changed the way you think about yourself and others. It did not change "who you are" even though it changed "how you are" but you are in control of what you make out of what it is trying to do. Someone told you a lie that may have made sense but if they told you PTSD is based on weakness, not being tough enough to take it, then they don't know what they are talking about. It is because you have a much stronger emotional core than they do. Maybe they are just jealous of that quality you have, then again, maybe they are only covering up their own pain because someone else told them that same lie. Look up most of the Medal of Honor recipients who openly talked about what their actions did to them and how they battled PTSD as hard as they fought to save lives on the line. When you walk away from "IT" you do not just carry your own pain. You carry the pain of others. Often they are not even people you know. Most of the time they are the one too many strangers you saw suffering, that piled onto all the others you encountered. So please, ask yourself a very important question. "If life mattered so much to you, you risked your own for their sake, then why doesn't your life matter to you?" Are you willing to turn to the very people you know would have died for you and trust them? You only have PTSD because you survived "IT" so stop thinking it defeated you. Stop being your own worst enemy and start being a hero in your own story. After all, if you think you are the only one you were with suffering, all you need to do is take an honest look at them and see the pain in their eyes. You know, the same pain you see when you look in the mirror. What are you waiting for? This time the life you save needs to be your own!
UPDATE: This article either proves I read way too many articles on PTSD or, I must be getting through to some... This came out on February 2, 2018
"Spreading the message that the heroes saving lives everyday, sometimes need help themselves. 'It reminds you that you are out there doing good. We didn’t do anything to cause any of those tragedies to occur, but we did the best we could.'"
Indiana veteran leaves behind hilarious obituary FOX 59 News January 26, 2018
“Terry Wayne Ward, age 71, of DeMotte, IN, escaped this mortal realm on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2018, leaving behind 32 jars of Miracle Whip, 17 boxes of Hamburger Helper and multitudes of other random items that would prove helpful in the event of a zombie apocalypse."
DEMOTTE, Ind. – A northwest Indiana woman decided the style of traditional obituaries didn’t quite fit her dad’s personality, so she wrote up one that did.
“He lived to make other people laugh…it was the only way to honor him properly,” said daughter, Jean Lahn, of Lowell.
Terry Ward moved to Demotte from suburban Illinois in 1973 after serving in the Vietnam War. The Army veteran wanted a quiet place in the country after participating in active combat.
During her work at Geisen Funeral Home, she has seen her fair share of stale obituaries, usually set up the the exact same way.
“I wrote it myself and I didn’t tell anyone I was going to make it funny,” Jean said.
After reading it, the rest of her family said it was perfect and shared many laughs. read more here
Veteran named ‘Smiley’ is gifted with $60,000 dental implants by generous dentist WCMH NBC 4 Columbus Inside Edition Staff Published: January 26, 2018
A veteran was given the gift of a new smile by a dentist who was deeply moved by his touching personal story.
Larry “Smiley” Kleiman, who did two tours in Vietnam, had almost no natural teeth left when he saw Dr. Michael Tischler, founder of the Teeth Tomorrow franchise network, for a consultation.
Dr. Tischler was so moved by his personal story that he decided to perform the $60,000 surgery free of charge.
“He smiled, he had no teeth. His his name was Smiley, he was a fireman. He worked with dogs in Vietnam. And everything about him was just the kind of person that you wanna help,” Tischler said.
Kleiman currently spends his time helping others with his local K-9 unit and as an active volunteer at his local firehouse. Which is why Tischler said he called he wife and said “let’s help this guy.” read more here
