Air Force Veteran, Retired NC official commited suicide

Retired NC official commits suicide before Franklin deputies can question him in investigation

WRAL News
February 5, 2019

YOUNGSVILLE, N.C. — A retired state official killed himself last week after Franklin County deputies went to his Youngsville home, authorities said.

James Prosser served as assistant secretary of the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs under former Gov. Pat McCrory.

According to the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, deputies went to his home Thursday to talk to him about a joint investigation between the department and the State Bureau of Investigation. When they arrived, Prosser walked out the back door of the home and shot himself in a nearby wooded area, authorities said.

Authorities have refused to provide details about the investigation because of his death.

Prosser, an Air Force veteran, will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
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Disabled veteran has to pay property tax---because home caught on fire?

Disabled Veteran hit with high property tax bill after house fire in Theodore

NBC 15 News
by Muriel Bailey
February 1, 2019

THEODORE, Ala. (WPMI) — A disabled veteran and his wife say they were hit with a high property tax bill after their home caught fire.

The couple says they're now expected to pay the bill because their homestead exemption was canceled.

Last year we introduced you to Kay and Daniel Vanek. An electrical fire damaged their home in Theodore in October of 2017.

Home depot came by to help with repairs since Daniel is a disabled veteran with Parkinson’s disease.

The couple is back in their home now, but it came with some sticker shock.

"When that bill came it was quite a shock we were just not expecting that amount of money," Kay said.

Kay says they've received homestead exemption for more than 10 years, which means they didn't pay property taxes.

However, she says that changed and they got a 2018 tax bill for 1400 dollars.

"They said that was because we did not live here every day of that year," she said.
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Airman found dead at Eielson Air Force Base

Airman found dead in Alaska

By STARS AND STRIPES
Published: February 6, 2019

An airman was found dead in a parking lot in North Pole, Alaska, Eielson Air Force Base officials said Tuesday.

Then-Airman 1st Class Elijah Evans in a photo from social media. Evans, 23, a senior airman from Waldorf, Md., stationed at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, was found dead on Monday in North Pole, Alaska. His death is under investigation.COURTESY OF ELIJAH EVANS/FACEBOOK VIA U.S. AIR FORCE

Senior Airman Elijah Evans, 23, was found dead on Monday, according to an Air Force statement, though where he was found is unclear. The Air Force said it was a restaurant parking lot, while North Pole police quoted by KTVF News of Fairbanks said he was found at the Gorilla Fireworks parking lot.

Evans was assigned to the 354th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Eielson, and hailed from Waldorf, Md. He joined the Air Force on May 10, 2016, according to the statement.
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Soldier accidentally shot himself in the head, lived and now denied benefits

Soldier who shot himself in head appeals Army’s decision to deny benefits

STARS AND STRIPES
By WYATT OLSON
Published: February 5, 2019

The investigator’s original determination in Holyan’s case, however, was overturned by the 101st Airborne Division’s commander and then ratified by Army Human Resources Command.

Spc. Kevin Holyan, a wounded warrior athlete from the Fort Sam Houston Warrior Transition Battalion, poses with Lt. Col. Eric Kjonnerod, commander of Warrior Transition Battalion-Hawaii, during the 2018 Pacific Regional Trials indoor rowing medal ceremony at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, Nov. 10, 2018.LEANNE THOMAS/U.S. ARMY PHOTO

Army Spc. Kevin Holyan arrived especially early at the Hopkinsville, Ky., home of his former barracks mate, who had been promoted to sergeant and was celebrating with a party that evening in April 2017.

Holyan, a 22-year-old assigned to an engineer battalion with the 101st Airborne Division at nearby Fort Campbell, kept his personally owned handgun at that friend’s house, and was eager to put on new grips he’d gotten for the gun. Army regulations did not allow Holyan to keep the .40-caliber Glock 23 at his base residence.

Hours later, Holyan jokingly raised the gun to his head, and believing it was unloaded, pulled the trigger and fired a bullet through his brain. He was rushed to a hospital where a note in his medical chart that evening offered a stark assessment: “Grave prognosis,” it said. “Likely fatal [injury].”

Holyan survived, but today he cannot walk and is mentally impaired. He is in an Army Warrior Transition Unit and on his way to becoming a civilian. He is not expected to be able to work again.
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Soldier's heart does not have to include head full of demons

You are smarter than slogans

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 5, 2019

Someone lied to you. Someone told you something and you believed it because you trusted them. You never bothered to ask them to prove it was true.

I do not need someone to prove God is real. I see it everyday. I see it in the unique people who always put others first, even if it means they will be last for everything.

I see it when men and women are willing to endure all kinds of hardships, including the judgment of fools, for the sake of others.

I see God's Love in all types of acts of kindness and compassion, mercy, inspiration and unselfishness.

I also see what evil can do pretending to be good. I do not need proof that the Demon is real. I see what he does to those who find purpose serving others.

I also see it when people claim they are doing something to change what is wrong, when the result proves they lied to us. They can deny it all they want, but after all these years of hearing how important it is to prevent suicides, and how expensive it is according to them, we see suffering increase every year.

We hear it from the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Congress and especially from all the "awareness" fundraisers running around the country with their BS stunts. Did they think we wouldn't notice that they are spreading messages of despair instead of anything helpful?

Before they were "paying attention" we were way ahead of all of them. We were talking about what failed as well as what worked. Ignorance failed but knowledge heals.

Kathie Costos DiCesare
Published on Oct 21, 2012
There are many things that keep getting missed when we talk about Combat and PTSD. This is to clear up the biggest one of all. What is courage and how does it link to being "mentally tough" so that you can push past what you were told about "resiliency" training. Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare of Wounded Times Blog tries to explain this in interview done by Union Squared Studios. woundedtimes.blogspot.com

So we were told over and over again, that everyone in charge was paying attention at the same time they tried to come up with excuses. Then they asked for more money, to keep doing the same thing that already failed, and we were no longer able to count the number of the dead. Well, at least not in the veterans community, but because Congress mandated the DOD to track suicides within the military, we have a more up to date report with data that proves none of the "awareness" they actually needed to become aware of was able to get to them. All the crap got in the way.

So, here are the latest headlines on military suicides. 

Suicides among active-duty soldiers are up about 20 percent

Army Times
By: Meghann Myers
February 4, 2019

“We must continue to ensure commanders have the policies and resources they need to prevent suicides, that all leaders have the tools to identify soldiers who are suffering and to positively intervene, and that all soldiers view seeking mental health care as a sign of strength.” Col. Kathleen Turner

The Army reported an uptick in active-duty suicides in 2018, according to service statistics, though deaths by suicide were slightly down in the total force.

Out of 303 total reports, 138 came from the active-duty side ― 22 more than in 2017, Defense Department statistics show.

“Like the rest of America, the Army continues to grapple with the loss of too many of our people to suicide," Army spokeswoman Col. Kathleen Turner told Army Times in a statement Friday. “The loss of any soldier or Army family member to suicide is a tragedy.”

The most recent DoD quarterly suicide report goes back to 2012, showing a six-year high of 325 total suicides in the Army. That number dropped to 300 in 2013 and then to a low of 245 in 2014, before ramping back up to 279 in both 2015 and 2016, then jumping again to 303 in 2017.

During that time, active-duty numbers also fluctuated. The Army reported 165 active-duty suicides in 2012, which dropped to 121 in 2013, then 126 in 2014 and 120 in 2015. The past three years, the numbers have swelled and dipped from 120 in 2016 to 116 in 2017, then back up to 138.

“While the Army has made progress, more work needs to be done,” Turner said.
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US Special Ops suicides triple in 2018, as military confronts the issue

CNN
Barbara Starr
February 2, 2019

Washington (CNN)Suicides among active duty military personnel assigned to US Special Operations Command tripled in 2018, in a disturbing and as yet unexplained spike, CNN has learned.

Special Operations units saw 22 deaths by suicide in 2018, almost triple the eight cases seen in 2017, according to figures provided to CNN by the command. SOCOM, as it's known, is the unified combatant command charged with overseeing the various Special Operations component of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force that take on counterterrorism and other specialized missions. read more here

Active-Duty Military Suicides at Record Highs in 2018

Military.com
Patricia Kime
January 30, 2019

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include Army year-end totals.

The U.S. military finished 2018 with a troubling, sad statistic: It experienced the highest number of suicides among active-duty personnel in at least six years.

Lt. Cmdr. Karen Downer writes a name on a Suicide Awareness Memorial Canvas in honor of Suicide Awareness Month at Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Sept. 10, 2018. (U.S. Navy/Jacob Sippel, Naval Hospital Jacksonville).

Active duty Military members could save more with GEICO. Get a quote today! A total of 321 active-duty members took their lives during the year, including 57 Marines, 68 sailors, 58 airmen, and 138 soldiers.

The deaths equal the total number of active-duty personnel who died by suicide in 2012, the record since the services began closely tracking the issue in 2001. read more here

Don't you love the slogan? One too many or too few actually paying attention?

The question is, if we knew what had to be done over 4 decades ago, when serious research started, then why haven't they figured it out yet? Do not spend so much time thinking about taking your own life when you can think about how to #TakeYourLifeBack and heal! The road ahead is in your control!

Lance Corporal James Ross committed suicide after being isolated

Why were these troubled soldiers sent to 'isolated' base after horrors of war? Mother's agony that son who lost five comrades in Afghanistan is one of two found hanged in three months

The Daily Mail

Joel Adams and Sophie Law

February 4, 2019

• Lance Corporal James Ross, 30, was found hanged at Army base in Ballykinler
• Mother Linda Ketcher questioned why her son was sent to an 'isolated' base
• She told the inquest how senior Army personnel kept her son's friends away from her at the funeral saying it was 'odd' she was not allowed to have a conversation
• Darren Mitchell, 20, also died from suspected suicide at base three months later

Lance Corporal James Ross (pictured), 30, from Leeds, was found hanged at Abercorn Army base in Ballykinler on December 8 2012

The mother of a soldier found hanged in a suspected suicide at an isolated barracks, where another solder is suspected to have killed himself months later, has spoken of her agony over his death. 

It comes as a Daily Mail investigation found men from their regiment, which took heavy losses in Helmand, are self-harming and taking their own lives at an alarming rate.

Lance Corporal James Ross, 30, from Leeds, who served in Afghanistan, was found hanged at Abercorn Army base in Ballykinler, Northern Ireland, on December 8 2012.

The inquest into his death, and the death by hanging of Rifleman Darren Mitchell, six weeks later at the same base, opened today.

Mrs Ketcher said that army officials prevented her from speaking to soldiers from the barracks at her son's funeral. 

She said: 'A few of them [his friends from the Army] were visibly upset. 

'If any of the guys who served with him [came to speak to me], within minutes, there would be someone ushering them away from me. read more here

MOH Vietnam Veteran Major Charles Kettles passed away

Obituary: Charles Kettles: Vietnam veteran whose service medal was upgraded by President Obama 50 years on

The Independent

Emily Langer 
February 4, 2019 

The Song Tra Cau riverbed near Duc Pho, South Vietnam, was dubbed “Chump Valley”. Only a chump, American soldiers said, would venture there. 

Kettles receives his medal of honor from the president in 2016 ( Getty )

On Monday 15 May 1967 Major Charles Kettles did just that, braving punishing fire from the North Vietnamese to make four helicopter journeys delivering reinforcements to outnumbered members of the 101st Airborne Division – and evacuate the wounded and the dead.

Kettles was credited with saving the lives of 44 men and received the Distinguished Service Cross, the military’s second-highest award for valour, for his actions. Nearly half a century later, the award was upgraded to Medal of Honour.

President Barack Obama, bestowing the medal on Kettles in 2016, recalled a comrade who called Kettles “our John Wayne”.

Kettles, who died aged 89, retired from the army in 1978 at the rank of lieutenant colonel.
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Missing in America Project laid to rest 18 unclaimed veterans

Cape Canaveral National Cemetery Holds ‘You are Not Forgotten’ Ceremony for Unclaimed Veterans

Space Coast Daily
February 4, 2019

BREVARD COUNTY • MIMS, FLORIDA – The Cape Canaveral National Cemetery held a burial Saturday, Feb. 2 for veterans who went unclaimed in a “You are Not Forgotten” ceremony that drew hundreds of servicemen and women who wanted to pay tribute.

The Cape Canaveral National Cemetery held a burial Saturday, Feb. 2 for veterans who went unclaimed in a “You are Not Forgotten” ceremony that drew hundreds of servicemen and women who wanted to pay tribute. (Lee Hathaway image)

Since 2007, the nonprofit organization Missing in America Project has set out to find unclaimed veterans and give them a final resting place.

Thanks to the nonprofit, Cape Canaveral National Cemetery is now the resting spot for 18 veterans and six spouses.

According to the organization, one veteran went unclaimed at a local funeral home since 1973.

Missing in America Project Florida coordinator Kathy Church said many veterans’ ashes have sat on funeral home shelves, in attics and in storage.

The Medical Examiner’s Office has some dating back to the Civil War.
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Veteran committed suicide on Facebook live

'PTSD suffering veteran', 33, shoots himself in the head on Facebook live after murdering a five-year-old boy and critically injuring his girlfriend

GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING
Daily Mail
Luke Kenton
February 4, 2019

Jonovie Mclendon Jr., 33, executed himself live on Facebook on Friday morning
He killed a boy, 5, and critically injured his girlfriend, 27, before killing himself
A friend who served alongside him in the army says he thinks he had PTSD
The two victims' names haven't been released as an investigation continues
In the video Mclendon says 'it's been a long day' before pulling the trigger

Jovonie Mclendon Jr. (pictured), 33, committed suicide live on Facebook, on Friday. He pulled the trigger shortly after killing a five-year-old boy and critically injuring his girlfriend, 27, in Ohio

An army veteran who was thought to be suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder executed himself on Facebook live after murdering a 5-year-old boy and seriously wounding his girlfriend on Friday.

Jovonie Mclendon Jr., 33, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on February 3.

Concerned family members dialed 911 saying Mclendon had told them he had killed his girlfriend, her son and was about to kill himself.

'He just called me a minute ago and said that he loved us and that he killed his girlfriend and her baby,' Mclendon's mother can be heard saying in the conversation.

In another call received by authorities, Mclendon told dispatchers he spent three-and-a-half years serving overseas and was 'just tired'.
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Chicago Police Officer Found Dead

Chicago police Sgt. Lori Rice found dead in apparent suicide

ABC 7 News
By Will Jones and Alexis McAdams
60 minutes ago

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A 47-year-old off-duty Chicago police sergeant was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

The officer was identified as Sgt. Lori Rice, a 21-year veteran of the police department who worked in the 12th District.

Rice was found at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday in the 900 block of South Bell, just off Taylor Street, in a vehicle on Chicago's West Side.

This is the second suicide this year involving a Chicago police officer. Last year, four CPD officers died of suicide.

Sunday morning, a procession followed as the officer's body was taken to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
watch video here

If you think they will not be there for you, think again. Did you see the line of police cars escorting her body? Do you think they would have helped her if they knew she needed it? #BrakeTheSilentService and #TakeBackYourLife