Thursday, June 4, 2009

PTSD on Trial:Prosecutors didn't know Nicholas Horner was 3 tour Iraq veteran

Just what part - if any - PTSD may have played in the local shootings remains a question. Consiglio said that at this point, prosecutors don't even know if Horner saw combat in Iraq.


Two innocent people are dead and another one wounded. Three families left to grieve over this when they had done nothing wrong except to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Horner's family is left to suffer because of what he did and Horner sits in jail for committing these attacks.

The most stunning part of all of this is that the prosecutors didn't know he was a 3 tour Iraq veteran or that he was being treated for PTSD. How is this possible? Didn't his defense attorney think it was worth mentioning? How can justice be delivered if the jury and the courts have no idea what these veterans take home with them sometimes?

Horner did it. He shot three people. He is responsible for that because he decided to pick up a gun but we need to be asking if Horner is yet another victim in all of this because he arrived in the wrong place at the wrong time with PTSD.

All across the country things are happening to help our veterans heal. Veterans centers open up and the veterans end up having a place to open up, beginning the process of healing, minimizing the anger raging inside of them, removing the isolation they feel, comforting the pain they have trapped behind the walls of their soul and supporting each other. Veterans courts take the special circumstances of combat veterans into account to deliver proper justice. If Horner lived in another part of the country, something like this may have been prevented. At the very least, he would have appeared before a judge with knowledge of PTSD and prosecutors at least aware this man had been deployed into combat three times.

Is Altoona Pennsylvania part of the problem? Are they doing enough to treat their veterans? Do they have any compassion for them? Are they interested in true justice for our veterans? If the VA hospital treating Horner did all they could, then what failed? If they didn't then why didn't they? If Horner was a danger to others, then why was he allowed to walk freely instead of being hospitalized? Did his doctors know?

When veterans come back from combat there are so many questions that need to be addressed but as for Horner and the three people he shot, the truth was absent from this trial if the prosecutors didn't know he had been sent into combat three times and came back with PTSD.

'I feel so guilty'
Horner expresses remorse for double homicide, blames post-traumatic stress disorder

By Phil Ray, pray@altoonamirror.com


Editor's note: On May 15, the Mirror received and then confirmed that the adjacent letter is from Nicholas Horner, who is charged with murdering two people in Altoona April 6. With the exception of deleting a phone number, the letter appears without editing.

Nicholas A. Horner, writing from Blair County Prison, is "sorry to all of Altoona" for the shootings that occurred in early April when he allegedly killed a high school senior and a retiree.

"I shoot 3 people, killing 2 and injuring 1," Horner wrote in a letter sent to the Mirror in mid-May.

Horner, an Iraqi War veteran, is repentant for the killings that took the lives of 19-year-old Scott Garlick, a senior at Hollidaysburg Area High School who was working at the 58th Street Subway, and 64-year-old Raymond Eugene Williams, who was walking to his mailbox two blocks away, and for injuries to Michele Petty, another Subway employee.
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http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/519641.html?nav=742

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Man arranged wife's rape through ads on Craigslist.com with kids at home

There are times when the evil people are capable of leaves me speechless. This is one of those times.

N.C. man accused of arranging wife's rape on Craigslist
Story Highlights
Police: Man arranged wife's rape through ads on Craigslist.com

Male appeared in bedroom and sexually assaulted man's wife Sunday, police say

Attacker was armed; husband was in bedroom at the time, police say

Husband charged with rape, sexual offense


(CNN) -- A North Carolina man is accused of arranging to have his wife raped through personal ads on the Web site Craigslist, police said Wednesday.

The 25-year-old man, of Kannapolis, North Carolina, was arrested in connection with the incident that occurred at his home early Sunday, police said in a statement.

Police responded to the home at about 2:45 a.m. after receiving a 911 call indicating a male armed with a knife appeared in the couple's bedroom and sexually assaulted the man's wife, authorities said.

The man was present at the time of the assault, and two young children were in the home, but were unharmed and unaware of the incident, the police statement said.
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http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/03/north.carolina.arranged.rape/index.html

For military For families, toughest times may lie ahead

I used to post on Military Spouses for Change, later changed to Military Spouses of America. It wasn't that I experienced what they are going thru now that I wanted to share what I know, but for the sake of what they will face tomorrow when their husbands and wives turn from "troop" to veteran. I figured it this way. If they can last through deployments and redeployments, their marriages have a fighting chance but unless they understood fully what can come home with them, there was little hope of hanging onto even a strong marriage.

For families, toughest times may lie ahead

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jun 3, 2009 19:55:06 EDT

The wife of the Army chief of staff warned Wednesday that the worst problems for military families may lie ahead.

Sheila Casey, the wife of Army Gen. George Casey Jr., said in testimony before a Senate panel that military families are tough and generally resilient, but the cumulative effects of eight years of war are showing.

“Families are stretched and stressed,” she said. “I often refer to them as the most brittle part of the force. ... We can no longer ask them to make the best of it.”
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For families, toughest times may lie ahead

What ended up happening is that no matter how much I posted and shared what I knew, they would end up responding with they didn't need more things to worry about. Frustrating beyond belief because there I was ready to hand then over 27 years of knowledge gained the hard way and make it easy on them, but they wanted no part of it.

No hard feelings considering I knew exactly why they didn't want to know. Neither did I. I didn't have a military marriage. I had a veteran marriage. In the beginning of learning what PTSD was and what it did, I regretted looking at what could happen when the worst was finally sinking in my brain. Back then my husband's PTSD was mild. Thinking about what the future could hold scared the hell out of me. Then I knew that if I understood it, I'd know what to do and how to deal with it. So I grabbed everything I could from book stores, bought any magazine with Vietnam stories in it and went to the library to read about ancient warfare and this wound of the centuries. I knew whatever I learned, I was preparing for a battle of my own and I was armed and ready.

Now I try to tell the wives and husbands of today's warriors to prepare for their own battle. While some will take away what I have to share too many others walk away. They just don't want to know. If they think it is hard now, they will be shocked for what can come after and my heart breaks for them. Too many of them will see their marriages end needlessly. I'm glad that Casey's wife is trying to wake them up. I really hope she succeeds because I failed miserably doing it.

Extent of Nazi Camps Far Greater Than Realized

Extent of Nazi Camps Far Greater Than Realized
Decade-Long Study by Holocaust Museum Scholars Could Alter Public Understanding

By Monica Hesse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 4, 2009

A little more than a decade ago, researchers at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum decided to create an encyclopedia of concentration camps. They assumed the finished work would be massive, featuring a staggering 5,000 to 7,000 camps and ghettos.

They underestimated by 15,000.

Their ultimate count of more than 20,000 camps -- which they reached after a year of research -- is far more than most scholars had known existed and might reshape public understanding of the scope of the Holocaust itself.

"What's going to happen is that the mental universe of how scholars operate is going to change," said Steven Katz, director of Boston University's Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies. "Instead of thinking of main death camps, people are going to understand that this was a continent-wide phenomenon."

The Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos: 1933-1945 "is the first major reference work for Holocaust studies since . . . the fall of the U.S.S.R." and the opening of many European archives, says Paul Shapiro, director of the museum's Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. As a result, more information was available to researchers than had ever been before.
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Extent of Nazi Camps Far Greater Than Realized

DAV reaching out to women veterans

DAV reaching out to women veterans
By Don Bowen/Fremont Tribune
Wednesday, Jun 03, 2009 - 11:19:39 am CDT
Renee Barnes just wanted a place to fit in.

She had finished serving 13 years in the U.S. Army veterinary corps.

Like many soldiers who serve that long, her time in service took her to many places around the world and in different U.S. locations. But when her time was over in 1995, she didn’t know where to turn.


“I was hurt physically,” Barnes said, adding she also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder like many soldiers.

“A lot of things happened that I didn’t feel comfortable in the outside world,” she continued. “I really needed a place to feel like I belonged. In here, I feel like I belong.”

Two months ago, Barnes joined the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 18 in Fremont.

“I didn’t even know this existed,” she said, sitting around a table at the DAV building at the corner of D and Second streets in downtown Fremont with a group of other veterans.

DAV service officer and past chapter commander Al Martinez said Barnes is one of two women who are among the nearly 200 members of the Fremont DAV.

But Martinez pointed out that even though there are only two women members in the military veterans organization, he has helped at least 20 women over the past few years get military disability benefits.

“We give them the option to join,” he said. “We’d like them to join, but we don’t require it. We’re here to help all veterans.”
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DAV reaching out to women veterans

Veterans Reach Out To Help Peers Deal With PTSD

Veterans Reach Out To Help Peers Deal With PTSD
Posted By: Maureen O'Brien, News Director 3 mins ago

AUGUSTA (NEWS CENTER) -- Major General Bill Libby says studies show that 25 to 30 percent of Maine National Guard soldiers coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from some form of PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. That's one reason Libby is supporting a new program called Veterans Helping Veterans.

The project has teamed up a group of about fifteen counselors and therapists from the Midcoast area who are all veterans themselves. They're reaching out to those new, returning vets, to offer help for those who need it.

Rob Pfeiffer, a founder of the group, says the counseling is offered free or very low cost. Pfeiffer, who is a Marine Corps combat veteran who served in Vietnam, is also a family counselor. He says there are still far too many vets from past wars who have not sought help for their own PTSD issues. He's hoping that the old and young vets will feel comfortable talking with others who have been there, and know some of what they've gone through.

General Libby - also a Vietnam combat veteran - thinks the new program is a good idea. He says a lot of Guard soldiers and other vets haven't been willing to ask for help, because they think it shows some kind of weakness. But Libby says that even he sometimes needs to talk to someone about his own war experiences. He's hoping more vets will be able to step forward and ask for the help they need.

To contact Veterans Helping Veterans you can call Rob Pfeiffer at (207) 236- 3777.

Click here for more information. (and to see video)

http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=105487&catid=2

NEWS CENTER

Group of suspects in Walmart shooting included women and a child

Fourth person arrested in connection with Wal-Mart shooting

By KOMO Staff & News Services TACOMA -- A fourth person has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of an armored car guard during a robbery at the Lakewood Wal-Mart store on Tuesday.

Police arrested the man from a home near the corner of S. 58th Street and South Houson Streets in Tacoma around 3 p.m. Wednesday, according to Lakewood police spokeswoman Heidi Hoffman.

It's not clear yet what role police suspect that person had in the shooting.

The arrest comes several hours after police arrested another man in connection with the shooting during a traffic stop in Fife. Sources told KOMO 4 News the man was one of the two suspected gunmen. A woman and child were in the car, and Lakewood Police took the woman in for questioning.

Another man and a woman were arrested Tuesday night and booked into the Pierce County Jail, Hoffman said. Those two are suspected accomplices and sources told KOMO News one is a Wal-Mart employee.


The robbers are seen in security video


Hoffman said surveillance video at the store makes it clear that the robbery was planned and that the shooter made no attempt to take the money without violence.

"They just walked up and executed him," Hoffman said. "It was very violent, very cold blooded."
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http://www.komonews.com/news/local/46850547.html

Police continue search for missing Ocoee woman

Police continue search for missing Ocoee woman
Bianca Prieto Sentinel Staff Writer
3:55 PM EDT, June 3, 2009

Ocoee police continue their hunt for a missing 27-year-old woman who was last seen leaving a MetroWest bar May 26.

Tracy Ocasio disappeared after watching an Orlando Magic playoff game with friends at Taproom. Police say James Virgil Hataway, 28, is the only person of interest in the case so far.

"He was the last person to talk to her," Ocoee Detective James Berish said.

Crimeline is now offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction in the case.
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Police continue search for missing Ocoee woman

Woman: I was choked by 'person of interest' in Tracy Ocasio disappearance

Liza Murphy has been missing from her home in Emerson, New Jersey


Liza Murphy has been missing from her home in Emerson, New Jersey, since August 19, 2007.

Mom: 'I fear the worst, that my daughter is gone'
Story Highlights
Woman disappeared after argument with husband

Husband tried to kill himself after disappearance, denies involvement

Cadaver dogs detected Liza Murphy's scent near George Washington Bridge

Know something? Call 201-262-2800

By Rupa Mikkilineni
Nancy Grace Producer

NEW YORK (CNN) -- After arguing with her husband, Liza Murphy walked out of their home in Emerson, New Jersey, leaving behind her purse, her cigarettes, her cell phone and her three children, her husband told police. There has been no sign of her since August 19, 2007.


Liza Murphy has been missing from her home in Emerson, New Jersey, since August 19, 2007.

Murphy's friends and family reported her missing the next day.

"In my heart, I fear the worst, that my daughter is gone," said her mother, Sophia Stellatos.

Police searched extensively for Murphy, especially around a reservoir not far from her home, but they found nothing. Cadaver dogs caught her scent near the George Washington Bridge, but the trail went cold, police told the family.

Deepening the mystery, her husband, Joe Murphy, tried to take his own life a few days after his wife disappeared by walking into oncoming traffic and throwing himself in front of a fire truck, police say.

He was hospitalized and recovered from his injuries, but police say he hired a lawyer and is no longer cooperating with investigators.

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Recruiting center shooting suspect had other targets

New info released on recruiting center suspect

By Chuck Bartels - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jun 3, 2009 14:27:26 EDT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A Muslim convert accused of killing a soldier outside a recruiting center may have been considering other targets including Jewish and Christian sites — and had the firepower to carry out more attacks, according to law enforcement officials.

A joint FBI-Homeland Security intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press said officers found maps to Jewish organizations, a child-care center, a Baptist church, a post office and military recruiting centers in the southeastern U.S. and New York and Philadelphia.

“Out of an abundance of caution, and in light of newly discovered information, the FBI cannot rule out additional subjects, targets, or the potential for inspired copycats who might act out in support of the original act,” the intelligence assessment said.

Abdulhakim Muhammad, 23, of Little Rock had targeted soldiers “because of what they had done to Muslims in the past,” authorities said, saying he had said he wanted to “kill as many people in the Army as he could.”
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_recruiting_center_shooting_060309/

Operation Open Arms now offers mental health services to military

Operation Open Arms now offers mental health services to military
By MARIANNE PATON, news@breezenewspapers.com
POSTED: June 3, 2009

Thanks to Operation Open Arms, soldiers visiting Lee County can now seek assistance with coping with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder free of charge.

Earlier this year, OOA founder Capt. John "Giddyup" Bunch put out a call to area counselors for their help with a growing problem among members of the military.

"In January of this year, I had read that more of our soldiers were dying from self-inflicted wounds than all of those kill in the line of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan combined and I knew I had to do something about it," he said. "I then began calling area therapists to enlist their help and now we have a great team that will provide counseling pro bono."

According to Bunch, members of the military can obtain counseling through the Veteran's Administration, but the soldier would have to clear the need for treatment with his or her superior officer, wade through a mountain a paper work and possibly face the threat of the negative stigmatizement commonly associated to those who are in need of mental health treatment.

"In addition to avoiding the sigmatism frequently attached to any mental health issue, these soldiers are on leave for a limited time and often times are made to make a co-payment for services provided by the VA." he said. "Our program is completely confidential and won't cost the soldier a dime."
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Operation Open Arms now offers mental health services to military

The Wall That Heals in Johnson City TN

The Wall That Heals
Bristol Herald Courier - Bristol,TN,USA
By Mac McLean
Reporter / Bristol Herald Courier
Published: June 3, 2009

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Support for Parkinson’s disease sufferers blended perfectly with a desire to honor America’s veterans Tuesday as 300 motorcycles escorted The Wall That Heals to Freedom Hall’s Liberty Bell track.

Among the bikers was Mike Johnston of Bristol, Tenn., a veteran who has Parkinson’s and, as a member of the Northeast Tennessee Parkinson’s Disease Support Group has traveled more than 23,000 miles on his bike to champion efforts to find a cure.

“There’s a lot of days I can’t ride because the tremors are so bad, but other days I can ride as good as I ever could,” Johnston said. And being a part of Tuesday’s procession was a good day, he could ride and champion both of his causes: his fellow veterans and his desire to find a cure for Parkinson’s disease.

The Wall That Heals is a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that sits on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The half-scale version travels the country, giving people a chance to pay their respects to those who died in the Vietnam War, said Richard “Gunny” Lyons with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

“This is for people who can’t get to Washington,” Lyons said, adding that The Wall That Heals can attract crowds of 4,000 to 10,000 people when it is on display.

It also brings large escorts of motorcycle riders organized by veteran’s support groups, including Rolling Thunder.
click link above for more

94 percent of military families feel disconnected from the rest of us

U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak
Vets, beyond Memorial Day
By JOE SESTAK

AS A 31-year Navy veteran, I'm grateful for the Daily News editorial on veterans and share your concern that few Americans are as aware of the true meaning of Memorial Day as they should be, and even fewer continue to recognize its purpose once it's passed.

A recent survey sponsored by Blue Star Mothers of America found that 94 percent of the military families polled felt they were disconnected from our society. The group represents the relatively few American families touched by our current conflicts. When we consider that less than one percent of our population is directly involved in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's all the more important that we never take those who are serving and waiting for granted.

As for the men and women deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, many go outside the wire every day for entire 15- month deployments, not knowing if the car beside them, or even a person walking down the street, will explode. A 2008 Army survey reported that more than one in eight soldiers in these conflicts take anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medications or sleeping pills. Yet the number of behavioral health workers in the theater of combat decreased from one for every 387 troops in 2004 to one for every 734 in 2007.

The challenges of helping veterans of current conflicts are compounded by the fact that we have not, for three generations, appropriately dealt with the psychological impact of war on our warriors. Thomas Childers, author of the recently published "Soldiers from the War Returning," uncovered 1.3 million hospitalizations for neuropsychiatric symptoms during WW II. He found that divorce filings by vets were twice the civilian rate, and, in January 1946, only 6,000 of the 52,000 disabled veterans who applied for jobs found employment.

During my lifetime our nation broke faith with our Vietnam veterans. The severe recessions of 1969 and 1974 did much to complicate the return of that generation, and those men and women came home not only to a struggling economy, but also to a lesser GI Bill than their fathers and a VA unprepared to deal with the unique nature of that war and the changes to our society since the 1940s. Partly as a result of these past failures, as well as the stress of today's military operations, one in four homeless Americans are veterans and every day 18 vets commit suicide.

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Vets, beyond Memorial Day

Congressman Sestak closed it this way

As George Washington so eloquently put it:

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation." *

U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak is a Democrat who represents the 7th District.

It is the same way I end my emails.

Is there really any need to wonder why military families feel isolated and alone? I've lived with veterans all my life, so I guess it's only natural that I care. Yet when I go out with friends, the conversation usually turns temporarily to what I do. The conversation doesn't last long and someone always seems to change the subject but that someone is never me. While PTSD is more easily discussed among veterans in social gatherings, again, they are never lengthy conversations unless the person happens to be living with PTSD.

Strangers will notice my Chaplain shirt and make some kind of comment like "I didn't know they made female chaplains" and I'll add fuel to the fire by saying " Yes, they even make female veterans chaplains." The conversation usually ends there. If I say very little without mentioning veterans, the conversation lasts longer. When you think we are a nation of over 300 million people and there are less than 30 million veterans, it's easy to understand the disconnect.

While TV shows like MASH were popular and some movies like Saving Private Ryan, the TV coverage of two live military campaigns has been virtually non-existent. During the Vietnam War there were daily reminders of the sacrifices being made by the warriors but it was not a movie and the American public had enough. The Gulf War was covered more but considering how fast it was over, it did not "get on people's nerves" as much as Vietnam did. With Shock and Awe, the bombing of Baghdad, again, it seemed to be over almost as fast as it began and soon the military was rolling in to the heart of the city. By then, Afghanistan was all but forgotten.

Afghanistan was invaded in 2001 and 12 US lives were lost. As of today the total is 695 with each year claiming higher and higher fatalities and casualties. The Coalition forces did not lose any lives until 2002 when 20 were killed. As of today that number is 473. Last year was the worse year with 155 US lives lost and 139 Coalition forces lost according to ICasualties.org.

Iraq has been going on for 2,265 days and has claimed the lives of 4,308 US lives, 179 from the UK and 139 from other nations. The US is pretty much alone in Iraq now. It's hard to believe both of these military campaigns have been going on that long.

What is even harder to believe is the American public are too consumed with their own problems to even notice. They don't see the hardship on the troops redeploying or on their families saying good-by yet again, or the strain of being a single parent. They don't see the hardship on the citizen soldiers or their families when they ship out as they try to make ends meet in between deployment and homecoming. They surely don't see the numbers of PTSD wounded either.

When we read reports in the newspapers about the growing numbers there is another disconnect between acknowledging the difference between what the VA has for reported numbers and what the Department of Defense has. These numbers are not combined. One more fact is that until a claim is approved by the VA, they are not counted either and there are over 900,000 claims in the backlog pile getting higher everyday. I was talking with someone in suicide prevention and I stated clearly given the numbers we had after Vietnam, the redeployments and increase risk of PTSD, we're looking at a million within the next two years. He said we were already at 600,000. Try telling that to the American public when the broadcast media has been missing in action on this. How many special reports have they done? How many investigative reports have they done?

Even with the killing at Camp Liberty in Iraq by Sgt. Russell, there was very little reporting done. How can we expect the American public to become involved if they know nothing? The bigger question is, how can we fill in the break between military families and the rest of society when this minority remains out of the spotlight?

U.S. D-Day Memorial struggles to stay afloat

U.S. D-Day Memorial struggles to stay afloat

By Sue Lindsey - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 2, 2009 17:28:32 EDT

BEDFORD, Va. — On the eve of the 65th anniversary of D-Day, the foundation that runs the National D-Day Memorial is on the brink of financial ruin.

Donations are down in the poor economy. The primary base of support — World War II veterans — is dying off. And the privately funded memorial is struggling to draw visitors because it is hundreds of miles from a major city.

The memorial opened eight years ago at a ceremony attended by President George W. Bush. It was built in Bedford because the community suffered among the highest per-capita losses in the United States on D-Day.

Facing the prospect of cutting staff and hours, the memorial’s president believes its only hope for long-term survival is to be taken over by the National Park Service or by a college or university.

So far, he has found no takers.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_d_day_memorial_060209/

D-Day veteran: "The horror I saw"

D-Day veteran: "The horror I saw"

US veteran Robert Sales was dropped on the beaches of Normandy as part of the D-Day landings, a crucial turning point in the war with Nazi Germany.

In one of the biggest military exercises in history, the Allies landed around 156,000 troops on 6 June 1944. On D-Day alone up to 3,000 Allied soldiers died, with 9,000 wounded or missing.

As the world prepares to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the operation, Mr Sales reflects on his experience, admitting, "I had never dreamed of a disaster like this".

SOS from VFW: Combat Vets in Trouble

After posting about the idiot denying the reality of PTSD, I have found restoration of my fellow informed readers of reality. This article was followed by over 300 comments and most of them were positive. They comment on how they are veterans or have someone in their family suffering from PTSD. After you read the article, please read some of the comments and know, the plague of deniers of PTSD are the minority and have everything to be ashamed of instead of the veterans.

SOS from VFW: Combat Vets in Trouble
David Wood

Their stories are legion. The stress behind their stories, stress that combat veterans often hold tight inside, can be painful and destructive.

There was the Marine in Afghanistan who told me he has post-traumatic stress disorder so bad he can't stand to be safe at home, where he sometimes drops to the floor, thinking a loud noise is an incoming mortar. He keeps volunteering to return to combat, where his hair-trigger reflexes make sense. Where he's comfortable.

For veterans, telling their stories can be helpful. Having someone listen? Priceless.

With a new generation of veterans returning from combat and military suicides on an alarming rise, listening is the idea behind a global alert from the Veterans of Foreign Wars to its 2.2 million members. Find a vet. Offer to listen.

"The need has overwhelmed the capacity of government and civilian mental health centers,'' said VFW Commander Glen M. Gardner, Jr., who served as a Marine in Vietnam.

"I urge every VFW member to get immediately involved by seeking out and extending a hand of friendship and help'' to local veterans. "Our government cannot battle this enemy alone, nor should that 22-year-old combat veteran," Gardner said in a May 29 appeal to his members.
For most combat veterans, the stress of wartime deployment eases over time.

"Whether people have full-blown PTSD or just some of the symptoms, most people do get better over a short period of time with the support of family and friends," said Dr. Sonja Batten, deputy director of the Pentagon's Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury.
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Combat Vets in Trouble


Also on this

VFW chief: Look out for struggling soldiers

By Kristin M. Hall - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jun 3, 2009 13:55:21 EDT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The head of the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization is urging more than 1.6 million veteran members to reach out to soldiers who may be considering suicide.

Commander in Chief Glen Gardner issued the open letter following the announcement last week that 11 soldiers from Fort Campbell, Ky., have committed suicide in 2009 — the highest of any Army post.

The Army reached the highest rate of suicides on record last year.

Gardner said Wednesday that veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely to open up to other combat veterans about personal or psychological problems.

“Your credibility goes up greatly with these young people” if you have served in combat, he said. “VFW people are not counselors, they are not trained to be counselors, but those of us who have been in combat can listen and understand what they are talking about.”

He asked the members to listen, be sympathetic and take soldiers to professional counseling through the military or the Veterans Affairs. He said this is first time the Kansas City, Mo.-based veterans group has asked its members to seek out both active duty and National Guard and Reserve soldiers who may be struggling.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_vfw_plea_troops_060309/

Ignorance of PTSD is a plague against veterans

by
Chaplain Kathie

With literally hundreds of articles to read during the week, I tend to pass by opinion pieces. There is just not enough hours in the day to respond to all of them. This one got to me. Maybe I'm in a bad mood this morning? Lack of sleep tends to do that.


A broken warrior By Catherine Whitney was as great piece telling the story of her brother, a Vietnam veteran wounded by PTSD. This lead to a response from a reader denying the reality of PTSD. While I've read too many of this kind of ignorance from the uneducated over the years, there is no excuse for them to attack the veterans they are claiming they care about. What is behind the denial of PTSD and baseless claims? The end result is that this kind of attitude is like a plague against veterans and the generations of warriors risking their lives, putting themselves in harms way and suffering for doing what the rest of us have not.

Here is the comment posted on Hutchinson News Online and my reply in case they will not allow it to be published.

The PTSD myth
Catherine Whitney's "Broken Warrior" piece about veterans and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was about 180 degrees off course. It perpetuates the myth that there is an epidemic of mental illness in veterans because of their military experiences. My 30 years in the VA disability benefit bureaucracy showed a far different situation. Almost every VA employee I ever met who evaluated PTSD claims concluded that most were bogus grabs for money.

The truth is that the VA pays out billions of dollars a year in payments for PTSD where it does not exist. A huge self-serving industry has sprung up around this "disorder." Veterans profit by claiming the condition when they don't have it. VA medical clinicians diagnose the condition because their jobs depend on it. There is also profit for the attorneys, service organization representatives, VA bureaucratic personnel, politicians, and, yes, even authors who grandstand on this. The result is a siphoning of money away from the truly deserving vets with the real injuries and wounds.

Catherine Whitney would have you believe that it is difficult for a veteran to receive a diagnosis and money for PTSD. Actually, the money and diagnosis are available to about every vet, with or without a combat history. There is no objective test for the condition. It exists if the vet seeking money says he has it and the VA clinician needing a job supports him. The VA tends to pay more PTSD money to the rear echelon clerks than to vets with primary combat duties. That the money is paid inversely to actual combat experience is just a clue to the enormity of the fraud and abuse surrounding this diagnosis.

Ms. Whitney blamed her brother's alcoholism and situation in life to his military experiences rather than face the fact that some people just become alcoholics. She said that today's war heroes too often become tomorrow's poor or resort to suicide when there is no statistical evidence of that. Such unsupported claims were exposed years ago by the book "Stolen Valor" by B.G Burkett. Anyone who wants a true picture of the PTSD situation should go find a copy. What you shouldn't do is listen to people like Catherine Whitney or anyone trying to make a buck from the true sacrifices of vets.

MARK ROGERS

Pretty Prairie

http://www.hutchnews.com/Westernfront/wfrogers






Mr. Rogers,
What is your history with researching PTSD, living with it or even knowing someone with it? How many veterans have you talked to so wounded they have to struggle just to find reasons to get up out of bed after another night of reliving what they went thru in their dreams? Have you ever seen a veteran going thru a flashback? Somehow, I doubt you know very much about this but apparently think you can justify your lack of knowledge and ambivalence by writing about it.

Here are some facts for you because apparently while you have an opinion, it is not based on facts but merely assumptions.

PTSD comes from an outside force after a traumatic event that is captured within the soul/emotions, in case you are not a religious person. Scientists have found the part of the brain changed by PTSD responsible for the emotions in humans. It's been proven.

Next, if you ever read history regarding warfare, you'd see all the signs of it. Ancient Greek and Romans recorded the aftermath of war. It is recorded in the pages of the Bible even though there is a tendency to over look it. Abraham was a warrior and so was Moses. Read Judges and Kings or the Psalms of David and see it. Every generation of Americans have endured this invisible wound going back to the Revolutionary War. It's been called many things. Nostalgia, Soldier's Heart, Shell Shock and then arriving at Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by 1978. By then there were 500,000 Vietnam veterans with PTSD and this was published in several studies. The DAV commissioned a study by Jim Goodwin, Psy.D, Readjustment Problems Among Vietnam Veterans, The Etiology of Combat Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and it was all there.

By 1986 there were 117,000 suicides. Two later studies put the numbers between 150,000 and 200,000. Over 300,000 ended up homeless. Incarcerations of Vietnam veterans suffering from PTSD and self medicating with street drugs and alcohol became part of the aftermath. One more fact you lack is that had it not been for Vietnam veterans coming back and fighting to have this wound treated as a service connected disability, the rest of us would find no help at all. That includes police officers, firefighters and emergency responders. It includes people suffering from traumatic events like crimes and accidents along with natural disasters. All generations of veterans have been helped because of what Vietnam veterans did.

Now, you can look at PTSD anyway you want, but when you publicly come out making baseless claims against the reality, you are a plague much like the morons in the past unable to think like a human with emotions. People like you are part of the reason my own husband would not go for help when PTSD was mild and he had a better chance to heal more fully. Because of people like you he didn't want help until it was almost too late. I had the ammunition to overrule people like you because I knew exactly what PTSD was and what it was doing to him along with all the other veterans I had helped thru the years.

Next time you go to the VA try talking to a Marine back from Iraq, if they'll talk to you at all. I'm a Chaplain so they know they can trust me. I've held enough of them in my arms when they were crying and apologizing for the pain they were carrying because people like you would rather judge them than help them heal. No one is slamming veterans because they have PTSD, but people like you slam them and insult them all the time because you deny this wound is real. These brave men and women ended up doing their duty, finishing their mission, caring for their brothers in arms with the pain eating away at them with flashbacks and nightmares and did not allow themselves to think of themselves until their duty was over. And you, you with your ignorance insult them?


And now read what produced the comment by Mr. Rogers.

A broken warrior
By Catherine Whitney - Special to the Los Angeles Times

My brother, Jim, was a soldier once, but when he died, at age 53, he was long past the time when anyone called him a hero. He died alone, in poverty, alienated from family and friends, his life and death complicated by war wounds that penetrated far deeper than the pieces of shrapnel that won him his Purple Heart. Jim was a Vietnam combat engineer who survived the war but later became another kind of statistic - a lost soul, a veteran who never recovered from his experiences.

Jim didn't seek help, nor did the Army offer it during his 20-year military career. Instead, to try to deal with his pain, he began to drink. He was forced into retirement when he was 37, with nothing but a drawer full of medals, a subsistence-level pension and a crushed spirit.

We hear a lot of talk about post-traumatic stress disorder afflicting troops and veterans. To its credit, the military has tried to update its attitudes and systems to accommodate the growing number of traumatized soldiers returning from our current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But PTSD is still viewed as an abnormal response to battlefield trauma rather than the reaction of a normal person to the horrors of war. And so the stigma remains.

Tragically, it is often left to individual soldiers and veterans to seek help. Many are career military, as my brother was, and they fear the dishonor associated with a diagnosis of PTSD.
go here for more
http://www.hutchnews.com/Columns/brokenmkow


When you live with PTSD in your own home, you know what is real. When you help other veterans and police officers, firefighters and their families, you know what is real. When you work with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, you know what is real. People like Mr. Rogers, well, they are part of the reason the stigma lives on and I really believe they are the biggest insult to veterans because they seem to think they are looking for a free ride. I don't know about this Mr. Rogers or his history but he fails to understand that this kind of suffering is real, they can make a lot more money working for a living instead of being unable to work and collecting disability from the VA and suffer all kinds of indignation in the process. If people like Mr. Rogers cared at all about our veterans, he would invest some time in finding out what PTSD is, what it does to them instead of spending time attacking them. He is too much like too many still in some kind of bubble finding fault with the wounded instead of themselves getting in the way of them getting the help to heal. The dishonor only exists because of people like Mr. Rogers and frankly I'm glad he does not live in my neighborhood!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

3 brothers found dead in Lake Houston likely drowned

Police: 3 brothers found dead in Lake Houston likely drowned

Bodies found near Dwight D. Eisenhower Park

08:32 PM CDT on Monday, June 1, 2009

By Michelle Homer & Rucks Russell / 11 News

HOUSTON -- Something went terribly wrong during a family fishing trip Sunday and three brothers ended up dead.


A fisherman spotted the bodies just after 10 a.m. Monday in the Big Eddie Tributary that flows into Lake Houston.

Homicide investigators were called to the scene, but said there were no signs of foul play and the cause of death appeared to be accidental drowning.

The brothers, ages 21, 16 and 14, were fishing from the shore. The younger ones were visiting their brother from Mexico and had just arrived here five days ago.
go here for more
brothers found dead in Lake Houston likely drowned
linked from CNN

For soldiers, stress after war may be the biggest enemy

For soldiers, stress after war may be the biggest enemy
by Karen Leigh
June 02, 2009
Insurgents are stealthy fighters, their attacks unexpected, startling and violent.

Combined with the stress of longer deployments, loneliness and brutal desert conditions, they are the perfect trigger for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.


Soldiers now returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are experiencing the highest levels of PTSD since the Vietnam War.


Some just have trouble sleeping. Some find themselves emotionally numb or easily startled.


In the most extreme cases, soldiers have killed themselves – and fellow soldiers.


The nonprofit aid organization Veterans for Common Sense said that as of December 15, 2008, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA, had diagnosed 115,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets with PTSD.


“These are staggering numbers,” said VCS executive director Paul Sullivan. “We can either admit that there’s a very serious problem and begin treatment, or we can ignore the problem and wait until the PTSD turns into unemployment, drug use, and suicide – very expensive social problems.”
go here for more
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/washington/news.aspx?id=132737

Zoo Train Derails, Injuring 22 People

Zoo Train Derails, Injuring 22 People
By BRETT BARROUQUERE, AP

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (June 2) - A small train carrying visitors to the Louisville Zoo fell off the tracks Monday, sending 22 people to hospitals including one child who was critically injured, officials said.

The train of open-air cars is pulled by a small engine and circles the zoo along a two-mile track. It was carrying about 30 passengers when three cars and the engine fell off the rails near the gorilla exhibit. A person briefly trapped was able to be freed, zoo spokeswoman Kara Bussabarger said.

Seventeen children were taken to Kosair Children's Hospital for treatment, including one in critical condition and another in serious, said spokesman Brian Rublein. Five adults were taken to University of Louisville Hospital, and spokesman David McArthur said all were in fair or better condition and that one might be admitted.
go here for more
Zoo Train Derails, Injuring 22 People

Soldier's Mom calls on friends, volunteers to make quilts


Laurie Malms photo
Sgt. W. Eric Rodman and his mom, Laurie Malms


Mom calls on friends, volunteers to make quilts

By AUDREY PARENTE
Staff writer

DAYTONA BEACH -- Each time Laurie Malm's son "goes down range," as he describes his three deployments to Iraq, she has sent lap-size quilts for his whole unit.

The project isn't what's hard, because Malm of Fernandina Beach usually enlists the help of willing volunteers from quilting guilds.

The hard part for Malm is knowing this is her son's third time being sent into a dangerous war zone.

The first time was when her son's Army unit marched on Baghdad in 2003.

"He was there when they invaded," Malm said in a phone interview. "What I wrote to President Bush and Colin Powell at the time: 'If you are sending my son to die, there better be weapons of mass destruction and a horde of them.' So now, to know that there wasn't, and so many of the soldiers have fallen, I feel it's wrong."

Rodman's return was welcomed with a parade for his unit, and Malm thought it was over.

As a result of the first project, she started Lollipops Designer Bindings -- an online business that sells bias bindings made for quilting and sewing enthusiasts -- when she learned "how many quilters hate to make bias," she said, referring to the bindings created using strips cut on the bias of the fabric.

For her son's recent deployment she assembled nearly 40 volunteers to make more than 20 quilts with the help of her friend Gracye Beeman, owner of The Sewing Garrett in Daytona Beach. Beeman has a special sewing machine that helps speed up the process of building a quilt.
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Mom calls on friends, volunteers to make quilts

Police: Good Samaritan beheaded in Florida

Police: Good Samaritan beheaded in Florida

By Associated Press FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) - Authorities in south Florida say a homeless man beheaded a good Samaritan who had given him a place to stay.

Lee County Sheriff's deputies went to 70-year-old Charles Rogers' apartment Thursday and found his body still in his wheelchair. His head had been placed near the front door.
go here for more
http://www.komonews.com/news/national/46486397.html

Body found in river where Fort Lewis soldier disappeared

Body found in Nisqually River
By KOMO Staff OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Search and rescue crews have recovered a body from the Nisqually River.



PFC Robert Wheatley Jr. was one of nine people on three rafts which capsized in the river when they hit a log jam. The other eight made it to shore safely.


go here for more
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/46733502.html

Maj. Steve Hutchison adopted dog finds a home in the U.S.

Slain soldier's dog finds a home in the U.S.
A dog adopted by a 60-year-old Army major who was killed last month in Basra, Iraq, will have a home in Michigan.


After Maj. Steve Hutchison was killed on May 10, the saga of his “illegal” adoption of the stray dog he named Princess Leia became one of the fondest stories told by members of his unit.

In their telling, Hutchison signed a memo authorizing the dog as a member of the unit, which trains Iraqi border security officials. But even when that got him in trouble with his bosses, Hutchison didn’t give up.
click link for the rest

Few answers year after body of guardsman found

What will it take to get the military to finally figure out what happened? A movie of the week deal? How could they leave the family suffering without answers? Will reporters beat down their doors for answers? Someone must know something!

Few answers year after body of guardsman found

By Holbrook Mohr - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 2, 2009 12:47:16 EDT

JACKSON, Miss. — One year after the skeletal remains of a Kentucky soldier were found in the woods on a South Mississippi military base just days before his unit left for Iraq, his death is still a mystery.

Spc. Ryan Longnecker, a Kentucky National Guard soldier, was training at Camp Shelby near Hattiesburg, Miss., when he disappeared Aug. 6, 2007. His body was found June 3, 2008.

Several theories about the death and apparent inconsistencies in the case have left Longnecker’s family with questions they fear may never be answered, said Shirley Ann Longnecker of Cambridge City, Ind., the soldier’s paternal grandmother.

“They were supposed to give lie detector tests to a couple of the guys that he had a run-in with earlier, and somebody’s keeping them from talking about it,” the grandmother said. “We still feel like there could be foul play, but we don’t know.”

Longnecker’s nose and jaw were broken when the remains were found in a secluded area on the massive, 136,000-acre base just two days before his unit shipped out, Shirley Ann Longnecker said. The military would not confirm that to The Associated Press.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_longnecker_one_year_060209/

Silver Star Families of America endorses Hospice for those veterans

Silver Star Families of America Aiding Dying Veterans
The Silver Star Families of America endorses Hospice for those veterans who are eligible.

Silver Star Families
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PR
Log (Press Release) – May 30, 2009 – OUR WOUNDED, OUR ILL AND OUR DYING

The Silver Star Families of America has one mission: To remember, honor and assist the wounded and ill of our armed forces from all wars. And while we struggle to meet the needs of our wounded and ill we cannot forget those that need us the most; our dying veterans.

More than 1,800 veterans die every day. (More than 600,000 a year) This represents one quarter of all deaths in the United States. 85 per cent of veterans do not receive V.A. care and most still die in their own communities with only about 4 per cent dying in V.A. facilities.

Our dying brothers and sisters deserve to die with dignity, respect and honor. And they deserve to die pain free with Spiritual and emotional support.

Hospice care is part of the basic eligibility package for veterans enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration. (VHA) If hospice care is appropriate for enrolled veterans and has been approved by a VA physician, VA medical centers will either provide hospice care directly in their facilities or purchase it from community hospices.

“The need for education extends beyond the public to community hospice and VA providers as well. Many community hospices are unaware of the dedicated inpatient hospice units that exist in VA facilities. Likewise,VA facilities are often unfamiliar with the services community hospices can offer and how to work with them. There are also complex issues surrounding payment reimbursement and administration.” (Hospice Veteran Partnership Tool Kit)

End of life issues are always hard for us to deal with but it is an essential part of the mission of the Silver Star Families of America. We have started to issue Prayer Blankets to Hospice units at selected V.A. facilities. We can use your financial help.

Please go to: http://www.silverstarfamilies.org/VA_HOSPICE_CARE.html

Death is part of life and we will leave no veteran behind until they finally leave us for their last duty post.

10th Mountain soldier's death in Iraq under investigation


DoD Identifies Army Casualty


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.



Spc. Marko M. Samson, 30, of Columbus, Ohio, died May 31 in Tikrit, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 277th Aviation Support Battalion, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.



The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

Reunited: Vietnam veterans celebrate reunion in Lubbock

Reunited: Vietnam veterans celebrate reunion in Lubbock
By Laci Holcombe FOR THE AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
Monday, June 01, 2009
Story last updated at 6/1/2009 - 1:21 am

The unique bond that is formed between people who serve together in war was strongly displayed Friday when members of a Marine platoon that served together in

Vietnam gathered to remember and catch up.


Despite the years that have passed, the bond between these men remains strong.

Friday was an evening of recognition for First Platoon, India Company, Third Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment. They gather twice a year for memories and camaraderie.

Larry Wilson, their platoon leader more than 40 years ago, helps sponsor and organize these reunions.

"In 1997, we had our first reunion in Big Bear, Calif.," said Wilson, "and it was the first time I had seen anybody since I led them in battle in 1967."

"So when we got together," said Wilson, "it was such a wonderful experience that we decided we should do this more often."

He said they decided to honor platoon member Lionel (Jerry) Lucero of Lubbock this year because he was their "tunnel rat." Wilson said they sent him into the tunnels to look for the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese army, which used tunnels for storage and to hide from American forces.

"So I decided that this year we should come to Lubbock and see Jerry," said Wilson. Wilson said he had served here in the FBI in the 1970s, so he had a fondness for the city.
go here for more
http://lubbockonline.com/stories/060109/fea_445807128.shtml

Local ex-Marine spreads word about Camp Lejeune's once-toxic water

Local ex-Marine spreads word about Camp Lejeune's once-toxic water
ByFernandoQuintero
Sentinel Staff Writer
June 2, 2009
When he discovered he had bladder cancer in 2005, Mike Segura of Casselberry began searching for answers.

"The day I was diagnosed, I said, 'Lord, I don't know why I got this,'" said Segura, 51. "Right then, I felt peaceful. I could see He had a purpose."

In April 2008, Segura found a possible answer — and a purpose. A letter from the U.S. Marine Corps informed him he may have been exposed to toxic chemicals during his stay at Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, N.C. During four decades, an estimated 500,000 civilians and soldiers were exposed to tainted drinking water on the base.

Segura's purpose, it turns out, is to help spread the word to others who lived on or near Camp Lejeune. He thinks his illness — and those of many others — was caused by exposure to the toxins that seeped from a dry cleaner and industrial activity at the camp into its water supply.
go here for more
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-aseccamp-lejeune-contamination-0060209jun02,0,6976866.story

Monday, June 1, 2009

Soft Spots continues to get rave reviews

ASU alum, Iraq War vet finds healing in his book, 'Soft Spots'
Clint Van Winkle, a Marine veteran of the Iraq War, was struggling to cope with life after combat upon his return to the States in 2003. Awful memories and images of devastation, callous violence and mind-scenes that included burned bodies and dead children were impossible to erase, and help was hard to find. Although he didn’t know it at the time, he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

A 2005 graduate of Arizona State University’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences (B.A., English), Van Winkle found a small but important piece of the elusive healing process through his authorship of “Soft Spots: A Marine’s Memoir of Combat and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,” (St. Martin’s Press, 2009) a book that evolved from essays he had written. The critically acclaimed book is a detailed account of his service in the early stages of the Iraq War and, more importantly, war’s aftermath and his frustrating experiences upon his return home.

“This memoir of combat in Iraq, and the post-traumatic stress disorder that followed, contains more literary touches than most, and it’s an admirable effort…it presents a vivid picture of what many vets endure,” reads one review in Publishers Weekly. Another review, by The Washington Post’s Juliet Wittman, notes, “Nothing gets held back in “Soft Spots”…despite the author’s lacerating honesty, the narrative is dreamlike and surreal.”

Van Winkle was a Marine sergeant in Iraq, commanding an amphibious assault vehicle section while attached to Lima Company 3rd BN 1st He crossed into Iraq on the first day of the war and moved about the country constantly, encountering all the horrors of war as only a front-line combatant can. Among those horrors were “soft spots,” the term used to refer to a fallen Marine, killed in battle, and accidentally stepped on in the midst of rubble. Marines.
go here for more
http://asunews.asu.edu/20090601_iraqvet

Two soldiers shot at recruiting office in Little Rock

Soldier killed in recruiting office shooting

By Noah Trister - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jun 1, 2009 15:53:42 EDT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A new soldier helping to attract others to the military was shot and killed outside an Army recruiting office Monday and a second soldier was wounded. Police arrested a suspect a short time later.

A man inside a black vehicle pulled up outside the Army-Navy recruiting office in west Little Rock and opened fire about 10:30 a.m., police spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings said.

The soldiers were outside the office when they were shot. They were taken to a hospital, where one died.


Lt. Col. Thomas F. Artis of the Oklahoma City Recruiting Battalion, which oversees the Little Rock office, said the victims had just completed basic training and were not regular recruiters. He said they were serving two weeks in the Little Rock office.

go here for more

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_recruiter_shootings_060109/


UPDATE
Police: Shooting suspect targeted military

By Noah Trister - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jun 1, 2009 20:33:40 EDT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Police say a man with “political and religious motives” confessed to fatally shooting a new soldier and wounding another Monday in an attack on a military recruiting center.

The shootings were not believed to be part of a broader scheme.

William Long, 23, of Conway died in the attack on the Army-Navy Career Center in a west Little Rock shopping center, and Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville was wounded and is stable, Police Chief Stuart Thomas said.

Police arrested Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23 of Little Rock along a crosstown interstate moments later. Thomas said Muhammad, previously known as Carlos Bledsoe, would be charged with capital murder, plus 16 counts of committing a terroristic act.
click same link for the update

Cheney Says There Was No Iraq Link to 9/11 Terrorist Attacks

This comes as no shocker for the people paying attention to all of this all along, but what it does is prove there was no legitimate need to rush to invade Iraq. We already had the military campaign in Afghanistan going on and US-Coalition lives on the line. Bush and Cheney pulled troops out of Afghanistan to send them into Iraq needlessly. Years ago, NATO generals were screaming for help in Afghanistan as the Taliban began to regain territory. Aside from putting the lives of the troops on the line in Iraq, they further endangered the lives in Afghanistan.

Today we see the results of this farce from the Bush Administration. Today I posted how the claims backlogged in the VA system are over 900,000. We see a nation full of veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan needing help to heal their wounds at the same time their claims are tied up and they are not receiving income between the time they are discharged and the time the VA finally gets around to approving their claims for treatment and compensation. While it's great the time they are provided with free care has been extended, this does little to help them and their families pay their bills. This is one of the glaring, screaming facts about what Bush and Cheney did to the troops.

After the troops were sent into Afghanistan, there were less doctors and nurses working for the VA than there were following the Gulf War. They did not increase the budget or staffing. As a matter of fact, they cut the budget. Next came the push to invade Iraq. Cheney, having been Secretary of Defense during the Gulf War, had forgotten that when he was explaining the need to withdraw the troops from Iraq was so that they would not be "stuck in a quagmire" if they had taken control over Iraq. In other words, he knew full well what he was sending the troops into this time along with the fact there would be many, many wounded veterans needing care.

This is the most appalling aspect of the Bush Administration. It was not just the loss of lives paying the price for what they wanted to do, the Iraqi lives and the lives of the Coalition forces, but the lives of the veterans wounded in service to this nation under their orders. Bush and Cheney forgot that part of being "a war president" was their responsibility to the men and women serving under their command. They always seemed to mention the obligation of the troops but never quite seemed to understand their own obligation to the troops.

This report is just one more reminder of how callous Cheney was with the lives he had no problem sending into Iraq or the ones he had no problem abandoning in Afghanistan.

Cheney Says There Was No Iraq Link to 9/11 Terrorist Attacks

By James Rowley

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney disavowed intelligence he once cited to suggest that then-Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein collaborated with al-Qaeda to stage the Sept. 11 attacks.

Cheney said reporting by the Central Intelligence Agency of collaboration between Iraq and al-Qaeda on Sept. 11 “turned out not to be true.” Still the vice president said there had been a longstanding relationship between Hussein and terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, that justified the U.S. invasion in 2003.

“I thought it was strong at the time and I still feel so today,” Cheney said at a National Press Club lunch today in Washington. “There was a relationship between al-Qaeda and Iraq that stretched back 10 years. That’s not something I made up,” Cheney said, citing 2002 Senate testimony by George Tenet, then the CIA director. “We know for a fact that Saddam Hussein was a state sponsor of terrorism.”

On whether Hussein helped al-Qaeda carry out the 2001 terrorist attacks, Cheney said,
“I do not believe, and I have never seen any evidence, that he was involved in 9/11.”


Several months after the Sept. 11 attacks, Cheney said it was “pretty well” confirmed that Mohamed Atta, one of the leaders of the attack, had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official in Prague in April 2000, according to a Washington Post account. Cheney later said the meeting’s existence couldn’t be proven, the Post said.
go here for more
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a3vvPsCY8pYA&refer=us

Family-to-Family Partners with Veterans Health Administration

Family-to-Family Partners with Veterans Health Administration
The launch a year ago of an initiative between NAMI and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to host a Family-to-Family class in designated VHA facilities in each of the 49 Family-to-Family program states has already yielded impressive results: Since the initiative’s inception, more than half of the program states have started classes.

NAMI affiliate representatives and designated Family-to-Family teachers have participated in numerous VHA staff meetings and sponsored events to introduce the Family-to-Family program model to VHA personnel. With the aid of presentations, a designated point person helps to promote the initiative within the VHA facility.

Reaching veterans’ families with information about Family-to-Family is a challenge at many of the project sites. At sites where outreach has been successful, using “family day” events, distributing Family-to-Family brochures in packets and sending program information for display in waiting room areas are just a few strategies that have sparked interest and increased attendance.

The project is nearing its goal of having a designated site serve as a model for other VHA facilities to implement Family-to-Family classes, and exciting news is coming from Family-to-Family program states about nondesignated VHA facilities interested in starting Family-to-Family classes, as well. Many designated VHA sites are requesting more information about NAMI consumer programs (IOOV, Peer-to-Peer and NAMI Connection), and NAMI hopes to offer these additional programs at the sites along with the Family-to-Family classes.

Family-to-Family graduates familiar with military culture (either as veterans or dependents) are asked to help with this project. There are hundreds of untapped families of veterans with serious mental illnesses who will benefit from finding NAMI. They will learn they are not alone. We hope this exciting NAMI/VHA partnership will offer continuing opportunities for veterans’ families to get the help and support that they need.


**Upcoming New Class**

Family-to-Family is a FREE 12-week peer education program designed to foster learning, healing, and empowerment among families of individuals with mental illness.

Beginning June 11, 2009 - SW Orlando

Program helps police, firefighters cope with trauma

"Imagine just lying in bed and you can smell the crime scene 10 years later. Or look in the mirror and see a dead person who isn't there. These are symptoms people really have."

Healing the badge: Program helps police, firefighters cope with trauma
By John Simerman
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 05/31/2009 02:18:35 PM PDT
He smiles now, with earnest, gleaming eyes, but Joseph Banuelos easily recalls standing in his yard two years ago, shooting rounds into the grass and thrusting a gun in his mouth.

A state drug agent who had worked in West Contra Costa, buying undercover on the same Richmond streets where he grew up, Banuelos was arrested twice over a weekend for driving drunk, he said. A year earlier, he had blown a 0.26 on a breathalyzer — more than three times the legal limit.

He had screwed up at work and his days as a law enforcement official would soon end. Worse, the images of past calls haunted him:

Turning a corner and seeing a 16-year-old boy who had shot himself in the head "looking at me, and as God is my witness I thought I heard him say, 'Mom, please help.'"‰"

The bullet that hit a 12-year-old, with Banuelos unable to move as rifle shots flew and the father pleaded for help as the boy bled out in his arms.

That triple murder-suicide in Novato.
go here for more
http://www.mercurynews.com/crime/ci_12490591?nclick_check=1

Cpl. Chad Oligschlaeger's death still under investigation a year later?

How long will the military be allowed to leave this family suffering, wondering and in pain over the death of their son?

A year after corporal's death, family still awaits answers
North Austin family mourns death of Marine who suffered from PTSD.
By Joshunda Sanders

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF


Monday, June 01, 2009

A year after Cpl. Chad Oligschlaeger, 21, was found dead in his room at the Twentynine Palms Marine base in California on May 20, 2008, his family is still searching for answers from officials about how his life might have been saved.

Friends and relatives of the Marine commemorated Memorial Day without him or any details of how he died because Oligschlaeger's autopsy results and the events leading up to his death are still under investigation, his father said. His parents have said that they think his death may have been related to post-traumatic stress disorder, with which he had been diagnosed.

"We've tried a couple of times to get his personal effects," said Eric Oligschlaeger, who lives in North Austin with his wife. "But here we are a year later, and the Marines won't release anything until the investigation is completely finalized. To say it's frustrating would be an understatement."

Capt. Lawton King, a Marine Corps spokesman, confirmed that no information about Chad Oligschlaeger's death is being released because of the ongoing investigation.

Friends and relatives of Oligschlaeger's have started a foundation named for him to raise awareness about post-traumatic stress disorder.

Last month, Eric Oligschlaeger and some of Chad's friends gathered at Rattan Creek Park in North Austin near a bench that honors the Marine. A plaque on the bench reads, "If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever."

Chad Oligschlaeger had returned from Iraq in early 2006, unsettled by flashbacks and nightmares. His family said he was taking medication for PTSD after his diagnosis.
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http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/06/01/0601chado.html

VA Claim backlog hit 915,000 on May 4, 2009

The question is, where were you when this happened? I'm talking to you Republicans choosing to remain silent as the problem grew and grew and they waited, suffered waiting and their families suffered, as Bush cut VA funding and Nicholson returned funds unspent. Where were you when they were being turned away from the VA with PTSD and suicidal, and then ended up killing themselves? Where were you Republicans out there claiming to care so much about the troops? Why were you silent? Why didn't you complain when men like John Mc Cain were voting against veterans and what they needed? Did you even pay attention?

I'm talking to you Democrats out there. Those of you who were more interested in protesting the occupation of Iraq, claiming how much you wanted to save the lives of the troops at the same time you did not utter a single word about what the living and wounded were going thru right back here? You are supposed to be the people caring more about the veterans in this country. You allowed Bush to make any claims he wanted about taking care of the troops and being "grateful' for their service at the same time he was stabbing them in the back and then you complained because they didn't know the truth.

And yes, I'm talking to the rest of you out there all so patriotic waving the flag on Memorial Day as you do on Veterans Day. Where are you the rest of the year when they are suffering? Are any of you writing letters to President Obama or Congress? State after state are cutting back their VA State budgets because of the economical crisis. Where are these wounded veterans and disabled veterans suppose to go when they need medical care and financial compensation so they can live their lives? The same lives they were willing to lay down for this country? Ever think, I mean really think about them?

President Obama has a lot on his plate right now and while his intension is to take care of our veterans, having proven that already with his budget increase, this is a crisis for them and will just keep growing unless you decide that the veterans of this country are worthy of you attention.

Read the following article and then watch the video below. Wounded and Waiting will show you exactly what kind of men and women we're talking about. They are not just numbers. They are our countrymen, our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and neighbors.

Crisis at the VA as Benefits Claims Backlog Nearly Tops One Million

Monday, 01 June 2009

By Jason Leopold

During the past four months, the Department of Veterans Affairs backlog of unfinished disability claims from grew by more than 100,000, adding to an already mountainous backlog that is now close to topping one million.

The VA's claims backlog, which includes all benefits claims and all appeals at the Veterans Benefits Administration and the Board of Veterans Appeals at VA, was 803,000 on Jan. 5, 2009. The backlog hit 915,000 on May 4, 2009, a staggering 14 percent increase in four months.

The issue has become so dire that veterans now wait an average of six months to receive disability benefits and as long as four years for their appeals to be heard in cases where their benefits were denied.


Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said during a hearing in March that the VA is “almost criminally behind in processing claims.”
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Crisis at the VA as Benefits Claims Backlog Nearly Tops One Million

Professional Development Resources Announces New PTSD Training Series

Professional Development Resources Announces New PTSD Training Series
Professional Development Resources PTSDContinuingEducationOnline, a nationally accredited provider of continuing education (CE) for psychologists, social workers, counselors, marriage and family therapists, and occupational therapists, has announced the release of a series of specialized continuing education courses addressing the diagnosis and treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in client populations of military service personnel.

Jacksonville, Florida (Vocus/PRWEB ) June 1, 2009 -- Professional Development Resources, PTSDContinuingEducationOnline has released five new online continuing education courses intended to give psychologists, social workers, counselors, marriage and family therapists, and occupational therapists the tools they need to assist individuals who are suffering from the sometimes debilitating symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The new curriculum deals with essential definitions and illustrations of the disorder, as well as treatments like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), pharmacotherapy, group therapy, and family treatment. There are also special topics detailing the complexities of PTSD and substance use disorders and the vicarious traumatization often experienced by helping professionals.


According to the National Institute for Mental Health, PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. Traumatic events that may trigger PTSD include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat. People with PTSD have persistent frightening thoughts and memories of their ordeal and feel emotionally numb, especially with people they were once close to. They may experience sleep problems, feel detached or numb, or be easily startled.

The National Center for PTSD identifies the symptoms as follows: "PTSD is characterized by a specific group of symptoms that sets it apart from other types of reactions to trauma. Increasingly, evidence points to four major types of symptoms: re-experiencing, avoidance, numbing, and arousal." Re-experiencing symptoms involve a sort of mental replay of the trauma, often accompanied by strong emotional reactions. This can happen in reaction to thoughts or reminders of the experience when the person is awake or in the form of nightmares during sleep. To qualify for a formal diagnosis, the symptoms must persist for over one month, cause significant distress, and affect the individual's ability to function socially, occupationally, or domestically.

"Veterans are returning every day with both visible and invisible injuries. Some of the most prevalent mental health conditions are marital distress, depression, anxiety, and substance abuse," says Leo Christie, PhD, CEO of Professional Development Resources. "With increasing numbers of returning service personnel and their families presenting with acute PTSD, health professionals today are highly likely to encounter individuals seeking help with the distressing and sometimes debilitating symptoms of this disorder. It is impossible to overstate the personal suffering and disruption experienced by veterans and their families. If the returning veteran has PTSD, every family member is feeling the effects. It is important for us as helping professionals to have the most up-to-date knowledge and tools to offer the specialized help they need. We all need this information."
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http://www.prweb.com/releases/PTSD/06/prweb2477624.htm

Reading man who helps injured soldiers now helping care for son

Reading man who helps injured soldiers now helping care for son wounded by city gunman
An Army Reservist who helps wounded soldiers cope with disabilities must now work with his son, who was shot three times in Reading.
By Dan Kelly
Reading Eagle


Master Sgt. Brian S. Thomas of Glenside is a soldier and a healer.

He has spent the past six years developing a rehabilitation program for wounded soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

On May 11, he got a phone call any father would dread.

His 23-year-old son had been paralyzed by gunshot wounds.

But it wasn't in a war zone. It was on the streets of Reading.

Nathan Thomas was hit in the left thigh, with the bullet missing all major blood vessels. A second bullet tore into his left elbow and came out near his shoulder.

A third bullet struck his abdomen, then passed through the center of his T-12 vertebrae, severing his spine and leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

Nathan Thomas is recovering in a Philadelphia rehabilitation hospital where he is expected to remain until late June. Meanwhile, Brian Thomas is required to return to duty with the Army Reserve in Texas on Sunday.

He said he agonizes about leaving his wife and son behind, but said he also has to prepare his on-duty residence in San Antonio to be wheelchair accessible.

"(With) all this paperwork and the issues that accompany them, I really have a hard time trying to focus," he said.
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http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=141162

Connecticut Valley Hospital holding up PTSD research

Well, that is exactly what they are doing. Privacy issue? These were soldiers in the Civil War for heaven's sake! What if Vietnam veterans decided that they had "privacy issues" and would not participate in any of the PTSD research being done to help them? Did Connecticut Valley Hospital officials ever think of that? Why would they stand in the way of doing something potentially monumental in removing the stigma of PTSD? History has shown this wound down thru the centuries. The more information coming out about our ancestors and the history of this wound, the more the stigma of being a warrior will erode.


PTSD is a normal reaction to abnormal events. The men fighting in the Civil War walked among the death fields with their own countrymen, relatives fighting against relatives and dying among other American warriors with just their uniforms to separate them. This is important research and they need to release the records to help heal this nations veterans.

Researchers Want Access To Civil War Veterans' Health Records
By JESSE LEAVENWORTH The Hartford Courant
June 1, 2009
A group of researchers says the state's mental health agency is withholding information about a significant chapter in Connecticut history.

The researchers, who are compiling a book on the state's role in the Civil War, are seeking files from Connecticut Valley Hospital on veterans who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, known in the 19th century as "soldier's heart."

The conflict pits the historians' desire to tell complete stories of those Yankee fighters against the state's responsibility to protect patient rights, extended in this case to the living relatives of those long-dead soldiers.

"The reason that we're pursuing it, we're interested in the lives of these soldiers," said Matt Warshauer, a history professor at Central Connecticut State University. "Over the last 50 years, there has been a real shift in the study of war. It's moved from big battles and the strategies and the actions of generals and much more toward the average soldier. ... People have become tremendously interested in the lives of these soldiers."


How does a man process such a memory and carry on? Some could not. Combat veterans then — and now — suffered deep, sometimes incapacitating mental wounds.

"With all we have learned about PTSD, it makes it that much more relevant and fascinating" to study how the condition was treated 150 years ago and how Connecticut veterans and their families dealt with it, Warshauer said.

The effort to document those individual stories, as well as the extent of PTSD among state Civil War veterans, began last fall. Michael Sturges, one of the book's researchers and a graduate student of Warshauer's, was denied access to the files and told that he would have to get permission from living relatives of the former patients.
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http://www.courant.com/health/hc-civilwar-ptsd-0601.artjun01,0,4233562.story

State Flag Placed at Vietnam Wall to Honor Louisiana Veterans

State Flag Placed at Vietnam Wall to Honor Louisiana Veterans
Louisiana Army and Air National Guard
Story by 2nd Lt. Angela Fry
Date: 05.28.2009
Posted: 05.28.2009 06:37

WASHINGTON – A 1,200-mile journey through the heat of the southern days and the cool temperatures of the northeast, strapped to the back of a Harley Davidson, describes the final journey of a single Louisiana state flag. The flag was eventually placed at its final destination ... the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington.

A member of the Louisiana National Guard recently participated in the annual Run for the Wall motorcycle pilgrimage, individually escorting the flag in honor of the more than 800 U.S. Armed Forces members from Louisiana who lost their lives in the Vietnam War.

"I wanted to be able to do something special to honor veterans from Louisiana," said Staff Sgt. Perry M. Pee of Eros, La. "This is my first year to be able to make 'The Run' all the way to D.C. We spent the past year circulating the flag around the state collecting as many signatures of Louisiana veterans and current service members as we could."

"The trip was demanding," stressed the mechanic with the 527th Engineer Battalion in Ruston, La. "But I know that whatever difficulties we may have had, it's nothing like the ultimate sacrifice the Soldiers on The Wall made."
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http://www.dvidshub.net/?script=news/news_show.php&id=34238

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Vietnam veterans, others pay respects at travelling replica


Jerry Sousa, of West Nottingham and a veteran from the 82nd Airborne, salutes the American flag during the playing of taps while standing in front of The Moving Wall, a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., during Newmarket's Memorial Day celebrations at Leo A. Landroche Memorial Field in Newmarket on Saturday, May 30, 2009. Sousa's biological brother, Lance Cpl. Robert Sousa, a marine, died during the war and has his name on the wall, "but they are all my brothers," he said, refering to the wall's names and the veterans in attendance.
Scott Yates/syates@seacoastonline.com

Moving tribute: Vietnam veterans, others pay respects at travelling replica
Vietnam veterans, others pay respects at travelling replica
By Gina Carbone
gcarbone@seacoastonline.com
May 31, 2009 6:00 AM
Roy Greenleaf lost 14 friends on May 19, 1968, in Vietnam. He found them again on May 30, 2009, at The Moving Wall in Newmarket.

Greenleaf, now the Newington fire chief, served two tours with the Marine Corps in Vietnam. On that May day, he was with Fox Company, 3rd platoon, 3rd squad, when they were attacked outside Khe Sanh.


The Moving Wall tribute to Vietnam veterans comes to Newmarket He caught shrapnel. His friends died.

Greenleaf had their names highlighted on a piece of paper in his shirt pocket Saturday morning at The Moving Wall, the half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., which has been in Newmarket since May 28 and will leave town June 1.

"They're not the victims, they're the survivors," Greenleaf said, pointing to the more than 58,000 names. "Their war is over. It's done. The rest of us are still the victims. We still walk with it."

Greenleaf came to the wall with the Ancient Order of Hibernians Pipes and Drums Band of Manchester. They joined in the Newmarket Memorial Day Parade Saturday morning wending through town to the wall, where hundreds of veterans, families and Seacoast residents paid respects to the fallen.

Rick Donnelly of Dracut, Mass., lost one-third of the Air Force commandos he flew into Vietnam with the day before the Tet Offensive. Seeing them again at the wall was an emotional experience. "Very much," he said, wiping his eyes.

The Red Knights Motorcycle Club of New Hampshire helped bring in the wall on Thursday night. Congregating around the flowers, photographs and other offerings were members of various military branches — including Navy veteran Ed Lyons of Kingston; Army veteran Jim Voss of Kingston; Coast Guard veteran Aaron Epstein of Fremont; and Army veteran Dick Rodier of Epping.
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http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20090531-NEWS-905310328

Dr. George Tiller, killed at church

You cannot justify this. Don't give me the crap about the number of abortions because if you approve or even attempt to justify this, you are not pro-life. You are supporting evil and hiding behind the pro-life title. Pro-life means all life and not just the ones you deem worthy of breathing. This man was killed in church of all places. Isn't church the place we're supposed to be able to go to make peace with God and find redemption? Was it up to anyone else to take this man's life away from him? He was murdered in front of people at church,,,his family and friends!

There are good, decent people in this country that happen to be really pro-life and they take the lives of the living just as sacred as they do the unborn. I happen to believe life begins with birth and the soul enters into the body when "God breaths life into" as when He did with Adam. Others believe it begins with the conception. We can all agree the born are alive. So if you believe this is what God wants, then you really have a problem a lot bigger than being inconsistent.

Doctor who performed abortions is shot to death
Dr. George Tiller, whose Wichita, Kansas, women's clinic has been the target of anti-abortion protests for years, was shot and killed at his church today, his family said. Sunday afternoon, authorities took a man into custody near Kansas City after stopping a car that matched a description of the killer's getaway vehicle, according to Johnson County, Kansas, sheriff's deputies. full story