Remains of missing Marines found

Team recovers remains of US Marine aviators killed in midair collision off Japan

STARS AND STRIPES
By SETH ROBSON
Published: June 10, 2019

TOKYO — Salvagers have recovered human remains from an area of the Philippine Sea where two U.S. military aircraft crashed on Dec. 6, the III Marine Expeditionary Force said in a statement Monday.

A KC-130J Super Hercules with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 152 takes off from Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, July 15, 2014. LUIS RODRIGUEZ/U.S. MARINE CORPS

Five crew members of a KC-130J tanker and the pilot of an F/A-18 Hornet were killed in a midair collision during nighttime training off Japan’s southern coast. The Hornet’s weapons officer was the sole survivor.

A search by U.S. and Japanese forces for the lost aviators that spanned 35,000 square nautical miles was called off Dec. 11.
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Vice Admiral's death ruled suicide

Navy probe rules vice admiral’s death a suicide

By: Geoff Ziezulewicz
June 11, 2019

The three-star admiral found dead in his home last year in Bahrain took his own life, according to a copy of the service’s preliminary inquiry into his death.

Vice Adm. Scott A. Stearney, then the commander of U.S. 5th Fleet, was found dead in his Bahrain home in December. (Marine Corps)

The body of Vice Adm. Scott Stearney, the 58-year-old commander of U.S. 5th Fleet, was found on the afternoon of Dec. 1 in his residence in Janabiya, according to the three-page preliminary inquiry obtained by Navy Times.

The heavily redacted document cites a Naval Criminal Investigative Service probe and concludes that a “timeline of events and witness statements” revealed “his intent to commit suicide.”

“No information uncovered during the subsequent NCIS investigation, including multiple interviews and forensic analysis of VADM Stearney’s electronic devices, contradicted this finding.”

The inquiry determined that Stearney’s death occurred in the line of duty and was not due to his own misconduct.
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Deputy sheriff found dead at his desk in apparent suicide

Philadelphia's first openly gay deputy sheriff found dead at his desk in apparent suicide

FOX News
By Anna Hopkins
June 9, 2019

Philadelphia's first openly gay Deputy Sheriff committed suicide at his desk from an apparent gunshot wound on Friday, just before the city's weekend of pride celebrations were set to begin.

Dante Austin, 27, was found dead at his desk at the Philadelphia Sheriff's office. An official cause of death is awaiting confirmation from the local Medical Examiner's office.

Austin was an Army veteran who also served as the department's first LGBTQ community liaison and was known as a "fierce advocate." He was set to be promoted to the position of sergeant next month, according to CBS Philly.

Sheriff Jewell Williams reflected on Austin's service with the Philadelphia Police Department, which he joined in 2013, and called his death “a tragedy for the Sheriff’s Office, Deputy Austin’s family and the local LGBTQ community.”
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Sgt. John Rikard of the Asheville Police Department was gone

After Husbands' Suicides, 'Best Widow Friends' Want Police Officers To Reach For Help

NPR
SAMANTHA BALABAN JAMES DOUBEK
June 9, 2019

Nicole Rikard's husband, John Rikard, died by suicide in 2015. She talks with three other widows of police suicide every day.

Nicole Rikard had recently married Sgt. John Rikard of the Asheville Police Department in North Carolina. He had an 8-year-old son, Tucker, from a previous marriage. From the time Nicole and John started dating, they had scarcely been apart.

Soon after they married, however, Nicole had to go to Florida for some work training — she was a crime scene investigator in the same police department. John worked an overnight shift and would call her when he woke up to check in.

But one day, John wasn't answering her texts. Nicole heard from a colleague that he hadn't shown up for work either.

Stuck hundreds of miles away in Florida, Nicole got on the phone with John's colleagues in Asheville. She told the police to break into their house.

Thirty-six agonizing minutes went by. Nicole was vomiting in the shower.

She finally got a phone call from one of John's lieutenants.

"Well, John is gone. And it appears to be self-inflicted," the lieutenant told her.

"And I said, 'What the f*** are you talking about?'"
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LA Gunman who shot officer in the back of head caught on video!

update California deputy shot while getting food at Jack in the Box has died, officials say

take a look at the picture and the car...the officer was off duty and just getting something to eat at the Jack-in-the-box!

Sheriff's Deputy Shot in the Head at Jack in the Box in Alhambra

NBC Los Angles
By Eric Leonard, Andrew Blankstein, Jamie Bankson and Shahan Ahmed
Published Jun 10, 2019

The wounded deputy was taken to an area hospital and was in critical condition

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was in critical condition after being shot in the head at a fast food restaurant in Alhambra Monday, authorities said.

The 13-year veteran of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department was out of uniform and off-duty at the time of the shooting, which occurred at around 5:45 p.m. in the 2500 block of West Valley Boulevard at a Jack in the Box restaurant, officials from the LASD said at a news conference Monday night.

The shooting was caught on video, and the victim was inside the restaurant waiting for food, said Capt. Kurt Wegener of the LA County Sheriff's Department. The shooter entered the restaurant and shot the deputy in the head and walked out, with no one inside the restaurant intervening before the man exited the Jack in the Box, Wegener said.

The shooter was described as a man in his 20s, 5-foot-9 to 5-foot-11, wearing a light colored fedora hat, black sunglasses, a short sleeved burgundy color shirt, slim fit jeans and grey shoes with white bottoms, Wegener said.
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“Candy Bomber” — will always be a hero in the eyes of the German children

'Candy bomber' joins tens of thousands on base for 70th anniversary of Berlin Airlift’s end

STARS AND STRIPES
By JENNIFER H. SVAN
Published: June 10, 2019

WIESBADEN, Germany — Retired U.S. Col. Gail Halvorsen — better known in these parts as the “Candy Bomber” — will always be a hero in the eyes of the German children who grew up in postwar Berlin, no matter how old they grow.

Retired U.S. Col. Gail Halvorsen greets spectators after arriving at the 70th anniversary commemoration of the end of the Berlin Airlift at Clay Kaserne airfield, Monday, June 10, 2019. BRIAN FERGUSON/STARS AND STRIPES

Seventy years after the lifting of the Soviet blockade that cut off the German capital from food, fuel and other essential supplies, those children still remember the delight of a chocolate bar tied to a makeshift parachute dropping from the sky.

On Monday, amid a grand celebration at Clay Kaserne airfield to commemorate the end of the Berlin Airlift, some of those children, now well into their 70s, thanked Halvorsen for an act that not only took the edge off their hunger but gave them hope during the bleak years after World War II.

“I’m very, very thankful,” Vera Mitschrich, who was 5 when the largest postwar relief operation began, told Halvorsen on Monday. “I’m so proud of you. You gave us hope. You gave us food. I never, never will forget you.”
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Former National Guardsman from Florida Died in Alaska

Alaska Army National Guard soldier dies in Copper River

San Francisco Chronicle
June 10, 2019

Before joining the Alaska Army National Guard, Hepler was in the Florida Army National Guard from 2001 to 2004.

GLENNALLEN, Alaska (AP) — A 35-year-old Alaska Army National Guard soldier from Fort Greely died when he fell into the Copper River while dipnetting for salmon.

Alaska State Troopers say the body of Sgt. 1st Class Russell Hepler was recovered.

Alaska Army National Guard officials say Hepler was a full-time soldier in the 49th Missile Defense Battalion's military police company at Fort Greely.
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Petty Officer James Miske died on May 26 in Columbia, South Carolina.

SC funeral home asks community to serve as family after Vietnam veteran dies alone

FOX 8 News
June 10, 2019

CHAPIN, S.C. — A Vietnam veteran died with no family to take care of his final salute, so a funeral home will take up the duty.

“It is my honor to use the Dignity Memorial Homeless Veterans Program to give this Veteran that final salute. I am reaching out once again asking that you help us serve as family for this previously Unclaimed Veteran,” Caughman-Harman Funeral Home said in a Facebook post Thursday.

Petty Officer James Miske died on May 26 in Columbia, South Carolina.

He was born in 1944 in Chicago and served in the U.S. Navy from 1965 to 1967.

He was assigned to Aviation Administration Maintenance before transferring to Naval Reserves.

“Petty Officer Third Class Miske served his Nation honorably in the Vietnam War receiving a National Defense Service Medal and a Vietnam Service Medal with Bronze Star,” the funeral home wrote.
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PTSD Patrol For The Love of Jack

PTSD Patrol post went up late today because I was being interviewed for my book, For The Love of Jack.

If someone you love needs you to fight for them, this is the way to start being able to do it!

When your battle begins after their battle was supposed to end

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
June 9, 2019

The PTSD Patrol video is late today because I was doing an interview with Sgt. Dave Matthews for KLRN Radio show Remember the Fallen. It is heard on Thursdays at 8:00 pm eastern time.

For The Love of Jack by Kathie Costos on Amazon

We were talking about my book FOR THE LOVE OF JACK. This is part of the interview. If you want to hear the rest, you'll have to wait until  Thursday.

Next week, I'll have more of this.
go here to see the video

Iraq Veteran David Bellavia to receive Medal of Honor

update:Medal of Honor recipient calls military honor life-changing

Associated Press

June 11, 2019

CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — Army Staff Sgt. David Bellavia won’t officially receive his Medal of Honor from President Donald Trump for another two weeks but already, he says, everything’s changed.

The radio talk show host and one-time Republican congressional candidate says his focus now isn't his own opinions but the fellow Iraq veterans he represents, as well as families of soldiers who've lost their lives.

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15 years after Fallujah, Bellavia destined for Medal of Honor and White House ceremony

Buffalo News
By Robert J. McCarthy
Published June 8, 2019

David Bellavia will travel from his Albion home to the White House sometime late this month, where President Trump is scheduled to drape around the Army veteran’s neck a gold medallion suspended by a blue ribbon — the Medal of Honor.

David Bellavia ran for Congress in 2012. (John Hickey/News file photo)

But his journey really began on Nov. 10, 2004, in the dusty streets of Fallujah, Iraq. That’s where the Army staff sergeant, on his 29th birthday, found himself in deadly hand-to-hand combat with some of the enemy’s toughest fighters.

In the end, five of them died. He prevailed.

Now a nation will say thank you.

Veterans’ advocate, author, former congressional candidate and current talk radio co-host, Bellavia will become the 3,469th American awarded the nation’s highest military decoration — and the first living recipient from the War in Iraq.
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Iraq Veteran David Bellavia Honors Vietnam Veterans