Palin's map of targets

This is what the "blame Palin" came from.

"Time to take a stand" with crosshairs? With targets? Maybe she should have used a boot instead and then no one would have put two and two together?
This is from FOX

House of Representatives
Palin Criticizes Manufacturers of 'Blood Libel' as Proponents of Speech Limits Cite Sharron Angle
Published January 12, 2011
FoxNews.com


AP
FILE: In this Oct. 30, 2010, photo, Sarah Palin campaigns in Wheeling, W.Va., for ultimately unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate John Raese, a Republican Tea Party-backed candidate.
Sarah Palin made a call to conscious Wednesday for those who would manufacture "a blood libel" for last weekend's Arizona shooting, saying "acts of monstrous brutality ... begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively" with Americans exercising their constitutional freedoms.
The former Republican vice-presidential candidate, the target of many pontificators ascribing motive to gunman Jared Lee Loughner, charged in the Tucson attack that killed six and injured 14 others, had been silent since shortly after the Saturday shooting when she issued a two-line statement offering her prayers for the families and victims.
But Palin's name -- and those of others, including Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle -- had been central in the early accusations over what spurred the shooting. Liberal media pundits assigned blame by citing Palin's political action committee's website, which showed crosshairs on districts that it was targeting in the November midterm, including the district of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the believed target of the gunman who was wounded in the shooting.
Others said Angle's comments on the campaign trail also incited violence. The debate about heated political rhetoric ratcheted up so quickly and vigorously -- even before Loughner had been identified as the alleged shooter -- some Democratic lawmakers called for curbs on free speech.
In a Facebook posting issued Wednesday morning, Palin lamented the "irresponsible statements" of those casting blame on political figures.


Read more: Palin Criticizes Manufacturers of Blood Libel

It seems there are a lot of "irresponsible statements" and Palin was behind a lot of them. Love her, hate her, but whatever you do, she seems to feel as if she is supposed to be responsible for nothing she says or does. If you point out what words came out of her own mouth, it is the "liberal" media's fault and they are attacking her. The "liberal" media made her a celebrity, gave her voice many ears but they did not put up a map with a bunch of targets. They did not make up the words she used and took great pride in saying like "reload" any more than they put any other words in her mouth. Now she wants to deflect any responsibility she may have in all of this?

The really bad thing in all of this is that she wants to be the center of attention instead of the people killed and wounded. If she had a brave bone in her body, really believed in what she says, then she wouldn't have taken down the map with the targets all over it or at least admit it was wrong to do it and that's why she took it down. She just wants to blame everyone else for the connection being made between her and the shooter.

We have no idea yet what connection there is or is not but Palin must have made the connection herself just as Giffords mentioned it before she was shot for wanting to be able to meet some of the people she wanted to serve in Congress.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signs bill to keep Westboro group away from funerals

Arizona enacts funeral protest legislation
By the CNN Wire Staff
January 11, 2011 9:24 p.m. EST


STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Gov. Jan Brewer signed the bill Tuesday night
Westboro Baptist Church says the shootings are God's punishment for disobedience
Legislation bars protesters within 300 feet of services
Groups plan to also shield families from potential picketers
For more information, visit CNN affiliates KGUN, KOLD, KVOA, KPHO and KMSB. Read the federal charges against Jared Lee Loughner (PDF).
Tucson, Arizona (CNN) -- Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed emergency legislation Tuesday that bars protests within 300 feet of a funeral and within an hour from its beginning or end.
Earlier in the day, the state legislature passed the measure, which targets a Kansas church whose members announced they plan to picket the funerals of the victims of Saturday's shootings in Tucson.
"Such despicable acts of emotional terrorism will not be tolerated in the State of Arizona," Brewer said in a statement announcing she had signed the bill. "This legislation will assure that the victims of Saturday's tragic shooting in Tucson will be laid to rest in peace with the full dignity and respect that they deserve."
The legislation makes protesting too near a funeral a misdemeanor in the state. It went into effect immediately upon Brewer's signing it.
The action is in direct response to the Westboro Baptist Church's announcement that it will picket the funeral of Christina Green, the 9-year-old who was among six people killed during Saturday's attempted assassination of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona.
read more here
Arizona enacts funeral protest legislation

This is from their site

About Westboro Baptist Church

Since 1955, WBC has taken forth the precious from the vile, and so is as the mouth of God (Jer. 15:19). In 1991, WBC began conducting peaceful demonstrations opposing the fag lifestyle of soul-damning, nation-destroying filth.

In response, america bombed WBC, sued WBC, prosecuted WBC, burned WBC. God is now america's enemy: 5,887 dead soldiers; 218,400,000+ gals. of oil in the Gulf; $14 trillion+ national debt. "Arise, O LORD, in thine anger...because of the rage of mine enemies..." (Ps 7:6)

america crossed the line on June 26, 2003, when the Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v. Texas that we must respect sodomy. WBC's gospel message is your last hope. More about WBC.


GodHatesTheMedia (.com)

What a glorious paradox! The worldwide media does its best to vilify WBC – and WBC preaches through the worldwide media!

more

God Sent The Shooter To Arizona (Video)

God sent one of your heroes to shoot a Congresswoman, a federal judge and 16 others. Thank God for His righteous judgments.

more

Destruction Is Our Prayer (Video)

Parody of 'In the Air Tonight' by Phil Collins. "€œPlease bring their destruction" is our prayer tonight, Oh Lord!! God hears the prayer of His sheep, but not the wicked!
http://www.godhatesfags.com/

I do not suggest that you go to the site to watch the videos. After reading what they were about, it was the last thing I wanted to do but the link to the site is there anyway.

They hate Catholics, Protestant, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Anglicans, and Baptists and Orthodox Christians. Yet while they have Baptists on their hate list, they claim to be part of the Baptist church.Westboro Baptist Church How is this possible? Because of the rules Baptists have.

Baptists do not consider themselves as part of a denomination and thus don't fall under any one governing organization. They operate as individual churches that uphold basic Baptist doctrines. Specific requirements for Baptist pastors may vary from church to church but basic beliefs hold true.

Enroll in a Bible College such as Baptist Bible College and Seminary to gain proper training to be a pastor. Courses may include Family Life of the Minister or Effective Bible Teaching. Although becoming a Baptist pastor doesn't require a formal education, the coursework helps prepare a pastor to meet his expectations. Some Baptist congregations prefer a pastor that has a degree or education in theology.

Read more: eHow.com How to Become a Baptist Pastor

In other words they get to hide behind being a "church" but living under their own rules.

The draft resolution the congress put together will do nothing to stop this kind of attack against people trying to bury their dead any more than it will protect simple Americans gathering together from an assassin with a gun.
Proposed House resolution condemns 'horrific' Arizona attack
By the CNN Wire Staff
January 12, 2011 6:14 a.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Draft resolution: "Intimidation and threats of violence cannot silence the voices of any American"
President Barack Obama will attend a Wednesday memorial service and visit victims' families
Wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is breathing on her own
The Arizona legislature limits how close protesters can get to funerals
For more information, visit CNN affiliates KGUN, KOLD, KVOA, KPHO and KMSB. Read the federal charges against Jared Lee Loughner (PDF).
(CNN) -- The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on a resolution Wednesday condemning the "horrific" Arizona shooting rampage, as President Barack Obama prepares to attend a memorial for victims of the attack.
The proposed resolution lists the names of the six victims killed in the Saturday shooting and states that the House of Representatives "stands firm in its belief in a democracy in which all can participate and in which intimidation and threats of violence cannot silence the voices of any American."
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who authorities said was the target of the attack, remained in critical condition Tuesday.
Doctors said she was breathing on her own. The Arizona Democrat's office released two photos of her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, sitting beside her hospital bed and holding her hand.
read more here

Proposed House resolution condemns 'horrific' Arizona attack

Fort Campbell soldier allegedly beat his 4-month-old son

Soldier Charged With Beating 4-Month-Old
Police: James Marcinkowski Admitted Hitting Son
POSTED: 10:38 am CST January 9, 2011

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn -- A Fort Campbell soldier allegedly beat his 4-month-old son.
read more here
http://www.wsmv.com/news/26417247/detail.html

Female veterans missing out on benefits

Report: Women missing out on post-war benefits
By Zinie Chen Sampson - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jan 10, 2011 18:03:03 EST
RICHMOND, Va. — A new study says female military members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely to be diagnosed with mental-health conditions than their male counterparts. But men are more likely than women to get benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries.

The Veterans Administration’s Office of Inspector General report, released Monday by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., also found that women are much more likely to suffer from major depression and to have a harder time transitioning back to civilian life after combat service than men.

It also advises that the Veterans Benefits Administration better inform female veterans about specific services available to them.

“Female veterans may be unaware of services available through Women Veterans Coordinators, because few regional offices post signs describing those services,” the report said.

The study also found that the benefits administration denies payment for PTSD claims at a higher rate for women than for men, and denies a higher rate of male veterans’ claims for mental health conditions other than PTSD.

During a review of 750 veterans’ claims, the inspector general found that one of the primary reasons that more male veterans were granted disability compensation than female veterans was due to a regulation that the service member was required to have earned a combat badge or ribbon — which leaves out many female service members, because Defense Department policy requires that women be excluded from units that primarily engage in direct ground combat, the report said.
read more here
Women missing out on post-war benefits

Retired 74 year old colonel helped capture gunman

Retired colonel helped capture gunman
By Brennan Smith - The Arizona Republic
Posted : Tuesday Jan 11, 2011 7:02:47 EST
TUCSON, Ariz. — A 74-year-old retired Army colonel, wounded and disoriented in Saturday’s shooting, helped three others disarm and subdue the gunman.

Bill Badger, interviewed Monday night at University Medical Center, credits his military training for his ability to respond quickly.

When he first heard shots ring out near the grocery store, Badger said he thought he was hearing the pop of firecrackers meant to harass the congresswoman, whom he had hoped to meet.

He saw no gun but could see the shooter’s hand extended as he began firing on the crowd.

“By the time I looked over there and saw him, he’d already shot the congresswoman, the 9-year-old girl and the judge,” Badger said.

Badger said the gunman then took aim at people waiting to see Giffords who were sitting in a line of 12 chairs.

Badger said he dropped to the ground to avoid the fire but felt something graze the back of his head.

“I dropped down all the way to the ground, and I lowered my head about 6 inches. I felt this burning, stinging sensation right in the back of my head,” he said.
read more here
Retired colonel helped capture gunman

Disgraceful Westboro Group to protest funeral of Christina Green and other victims

Maybe now there can be no doubt this group only wants the attention for causing a lot of heartache and this has nothing to do with what they claim to be about what the Bible says. These people were murdered but they want to protest anyway. A nine year old girl was shot down but they want to protest. They claim they are trying to stop the sin of gays as a reason to protest all military funerals. What's their excuse now?

"God hates Catholics!" the flier, posted on the church's "God Hates Fags" website, says. "God calls your religion 'vain,' as it's empty of His truth; you worship idols!"

Funeral pickets to be met by 'angels'
By the CNN Wire Staff
January 11, 2011 8:09 a.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Westboro Baptist Church plans to picket funerals of the Tucson shooting victims
Groups want to show support for the families of the victims
They will be silent and nonconfrontational, organizers say
The funeral of 9-year-old Christina Green set for Thursday
Tucson, Arizona (CNN) -- Tucson just isn't that kind of town, says Christin Gilmer.
Gilmer is referring to the actions of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, which has made its name protesting the funerals of people who died of AIDS, gay people, soldiers and even Coretta Scott King.
But when the church announced its intention to picket the funeral of a 9-year-old girl -- one of six people who died Saturday during the attempted assassination of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords -- Gilmer and others put their feet down.
Tucson is a "caring, loving, peaceful community," according to Gilmer, who said two of the six people killed were friends.
"For something like this to happen in Tucson was a really big shock to us all," she said. "Our nightmare happened when we saw Westboro Baptist Church was going to picket the funerals."
They're planning an "angel action" -- with 8- by 10-foot "angel wings" worn by participants and used to shield mourners from pickets. The actions were created by Coloradan Romaine Patterson, who was shocked to find the Topeka church and its neon signs outside the 1999 funeral of Matthew Shepherd, a young gay man beaten and left on a fence to die in Laramie, Wyoming.
Funeral pickets to be met by 'angels'

This is from the Orlando Sentinel

DAY #2 OF “THANK GOD FOR THE SHOOTER” – 6 DEAD! WBC WILL PICKET THEIR FUNERALS.

The 9-year-old girl was born 9/11/01! “Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it,” Mic. 6:9. God mercifully gave this nation a fair warning on 9/11 – but you despise His mercies, so you get no more mercy – man, woman or child. That’s how God the Avenger rolls!

That child was not innocent. This is a nation of depraved perverts who pass their children through the fire of their rage against God & all-consuming lust. From the womb, she was taught to hate God & mock His servants. That child is better off dead, so the cup of her iniquity will not overflow! Rep. Giffords passed laws trying to keep WBC watchers off the street corners. In repayment, God sent the shooter when she took to a street corner! The blood of the 9-year-old is on Rep. Giffords’ hands! This nation rejoiced & your officials were ho-hum when a violent veteran stalked 5 WBC picketers with 90 rounds of ammunition. In repayment, God sent the shooter with 90 rounds of ammunition & killed your federal judge, your child, & others. Now let’s see if you’re so ho-hum in the face of God’s wrath! The blood of these six dead is on your hands rebellious doomed-america! God’s judgments are so righteous & marvelous in our sight!

THANK GOD FOR HIS RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENTS!
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ktxl-westboro-baptist-church-using-01092011,0,1103853.story

Enhanced VA Health Care Enrollment Opportunity Closing

Enhanced VA Health Care Enrollment Opportunity Closing for Certain
Combat Veterans

WASHINGTON (Jan. 10, 2011) - Certain combat Veterans who were discharged
from active duty service before Jan. 28, 2003 have until Jan. 27, 2011
to take advantage of their enhanced health care enrollment opportunity
through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

"While there is no time limit for Veterans to apply for the VA health
care they earned with their service, I highly encourage this group of
combat Veterans to take advantage of the enhanced enrollment window to
use their health care benefits through this simplified process," said
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. "VA has health care
eligibility specialists online and at every medical center eager to help
Veterans take advantage of this opportunity."

The enhanced enrollment window was provided for in Public Law 110-181,
the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008. That law
gave combat Veterans who served after Nov. 11, 1998 but separated from
service before Jan. 28, 2003, and did not enroll before Jan. 28, 2008,
three years, beginning on Jan. 28, 2008, to apply for the enhanced
enrollment opportunity.

These Veterans will still be able to apply for health benefits with VA
after Jan. 27, but will have their status for receiving VA health care
determined under normal VA procedures that base health care priority
status on the severity of a service-connected disability or other
eligibility factors. This would mean some Veterans could face income or
asset-based restrictions, as well as delays in establishing their VA
health care eligibility while their disability status is determined.

Since the inception of the enhanced enrollment opportunity, VA has sent
more than 750,000 personal letters to eligible Veterans and hosted
thousands of outreach efforts through OIF/OEF and enrollment
coordinators stationed at every VA medical center.

Since June 2010, VA sent another 194,000 personal letters to give every
eligible Veteran a chance to take advantage of this opportunity, but to
date only 13,000 of these Veterans have enrolled.

The law does continue to provide the enhanced health care enrollment
window to combat Veterans who were discharged or released from active
service on or after January 28, 2003. For these Veterans, the five-year
enrollment period begins on the discharge or separation date of the
service member from active duty military service, or in the case of
multiple call-ups, the most recent discharge date.

Veterans can apply for enrollment online at
www.1010ez.med.va.gov/sec/vha/1010ez
, by contacting VA at
1-877-222-VETS (8387) or with the help of a VA health care eligibility
specialist at any VA medical center. Go to
www2.va.gov/directory/guide/home.asp for locations. For more information
regarding enrollment, visit VA's eligibility site at
www.va.gov/healtheligibility.

Fort Wainwright soldier in custody after wife's death

Fort Wainwright soldier in custody after wife's death
by Staff Report / newsroom@newsminer.com
Jan 10, 2011
FAIRBANKS - A Fort Wainwright soldier is in military custody in connection with the death of his wife.

U.S Army officials on Monday said no charges had been filed and the case is under investigation by the Criminal Investigation Command.

The name of the dead woman and the soldier were not released, pending notification of the next of kin, Army officials said.


Read more: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Fort Wainwright soldier in custody after wife s death

Deployment of PTSD soldier sparks protest at Fort Campbell

UPDATE

Returned AWOL soldier enters treatment program


By KRISTIN M. HALL
The Associated Press
Tuesday, January 11, 2011; 2:31 PM
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The wife of a formerly AWOL Fort Campbell soldier who was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan said her husband has entered a mental health treatment program instead.

Protests at Fort Campbell Over Deployment of Wounded Soldier
Monday 10 January 2011
by: Sarah Lazare & Ryan Harvey | Even if Your Voice Shakes | Report

A soldier at Fort Campbell, Kentucky is being forced to return to Afghanistan this week amidst claims he is not fit to deploy because he has not received treatment promised by the Army for severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder sustained during his deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Jeff Hanks deployed to Afghanistan early last year with the 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He returned to the base on leave from Afghanistan this past September, where he sought and was denied treatment on two separate military bases for traumatic injuries sustained in combat.

Hanks subsequently refused to redeploy and was forced to go Absent Without Official Leave in order to get medical attention from civilian professionals.

Now, less than two months after surrendering himself at Fort Campbell, the Army Specialist awaits imminent redeployment to Afghanistan against his wishes and against the advice of his team of medical professionals.

Seeking help in fighting for his right to heal, Hanks contacted Operation Recovery, a joint-campaign of Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Civilian-Soldier Alliance, which seeks to end the re-deployment of traumatized and wounded soldiers.
read more here
Protests at Fort Campbell Over Deployment of Wounded Soldier

Colorado National Guardsman killed by wife in murder-suicide

Man Killed by Wife in Murder-Suicide a Military Member
Police say 44-year-old Pam Sevey shot her husband, 48-year-old Aaron Sevey, before turning the gun on herself. Military officials say Aaron Sevey was a member of the Colorado Army National Guard.
Posted: 5:23 PM Jan 10, 2011
Reporter: KKTV

Colorado Springs police are now identifying the two bodies found on Saturday on the 800 block of Skyway Blvd. Police say 44-year-old Pam Sevey shot her husband, 48-year-old Aaron Sevey, before turning the gun on herself.
read more here
Man Killed by Wife in Murder-Suicide a Military Member

VA nurse pleads guilty to WWII veteran's death

Nurse pleads guilty to veteran death

WENDY MITCHELL wendy.mitchell@lee.net | Posted: Monday, January 10, 2011

LEXINGTON -- A nurse has pled guilty to the 2006 killing of a Maysville veteran.
According to Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital Medical Center nurse Maria K. Whitt, 33, pled guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Lexington, to involuntary manslaughter for the death of Jessie Lee Chain.
Chain, 90 at the time of his death, was a patient at VAHMC in Lexington and terminally ill, officials said.
Chain was a World War II veteran who served with the 445th Bombardment Group of the U.S. Army Air Corps. He was a retiree from January and Wood Company in Maysville.
Whitt, an intensive care nurse at the hospital, acknowledged on Monday that on Sept. 3, 2006 she provided an unapproved 10 ml dose of morphine to Chain; he died the same afternoon.
According to court records, an attending physician prescribed morphine for Chain; following Chain's death, another nurse notice that Chain's bottle of morphine was empty and "should've had significantly more left in it." Morphine pump records indicated additional doses were administered that exceeded the prescribed amount.
read more here
Nurse pleads guilty to veteran death

WWII veteran's Tampa panhandling stirs offers of help

WWII veteran's Tampa panhandling stirs offers of help

By Jessica Vander Velde, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Anthony Jacondino, 84, a World War II veteran, turned to panhandling along Tampa streets to help pay the bills after his wife suffered a stroke and couldn’t work.

[STEPHEN J. CODDINGTON | Times]

TAMPA — Monday started with a call from Veterans Affairs for a World War II veteran who had turned to panhandling to pay his bills.

Anthony Jacondino said the VA wants to see if he might qualify for a disability pension. His appointment: 10 a.m. Friday.

For the first time in months, he feels hopeful.

Jacondino, 84, was the subject of a story in Saturday's St. Petersburg Times, after he caught the attention of motorists at Dale Mabry Highway and Columbus Drive.

He served in the Philippines before leaving the Army in 1947 and then worked most of his life as an apartment maintenance man. His first wife died years ago, and in April, his second wife suffered a stroke.

They had been living on his $980 Social Security check and her income cleaning rooms at a local nursing home. With her unable to work at 62, they fell about $400 behind on their bills each month.

So Jacondino bought an orange vest and penned a message on cardboard: World War II vet in need of help.
read more here
WWII veteran's Tampa panhandling stirs offers of help

Spec. 4 Robert Towles, who fought in the Vietnam War nominated for Medal Of Honor

4 soldiers from past wars nominated for MoH
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jan 10, 2011 5:46:25 EST
Ancestors of 1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing found the Civil War soldier’s name in the 2011 defense authorization bill along with such futuristic initiatives as the Joint Strike Fighter.

Cushing’s name appears 147 years after he died on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

He and three other soldiers from past wars had their names added to the legislation, qualifying them to receive the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for military valor.

Cushing is joined by Pvt. John Sipe, who also fought in the Civil War; Chaplain (Capt.) Emil Kapaun, a prisoner of war in Korea; and Spec. 4 Robert Towles, who fought in the Vietnam War.

Each military service has a time limit to submit troops for the Medal of Honor. The Army and Air Force set the deadline at two years after the action for which they are nominated, while the Navy and Marine Corps lengthen the deadline to three.

Once past the limits, Congress must approve an extension. Each year, lawmakers submit the names of service members for inclusion in the annual defense policy bill rather than as individual pieces of legislation, in hopes of winning easier approval.
read more here
4 soldiers from past wars nominated for MoH

Also on this

A Lawmaker’s MoH Push for WWII Icon

January 11, 2011
Military.com|by Bryant Jordan
A Texas congresswoman says she will soon file legislation to waive the statute of limitations on awarding the Medal of Honor in an effort to bestow the country's supreme valor award to one of the iconic figures of World War II.

It will not be the first time Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson has filed her bill on behalf of Doris "Dorie" Miller. Miller was the African-American mess attendant who took control of the machine gun on deck of the USS West Virginia on Dec. 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor; for some 15 minutes, he was fully exposed to the guns and bombs of attacking Japanese aircraft as he returned fire.

He was awarded the Navy Cross, but as early as 1942 lawmakers -- sensing racism played a part in the decision -- have pushed for the Medal of Honor.

Johnson believes Miller deserves the award, and she champions him as both a hometown hero and a national one.

"Doris Miller was a friend of my father's and a neighbor in Waco, Texas, when I was a little girl," said Johnson, who was 6 when Miller made his stand on the West Virginia. With so much time gone by, Johnson's bill seeks to have the time limit waived for awarding the Medal of Honor to Miller.

Miller's bill is not the only legislation seeking to have the Medal of Honor awarded to a hero of a past war.
A Lawmaker’s MoH Push for WWII Icon

Heroes acted to stop shooter

Crowd members took gunman down
Two men tackled the shooter and a woman took away his ammunition clip before kneeling on him. Authorities also credit a staff member for helping the wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
By Sam Quinones and Nicole Santa Cruz, Los Angeles Times
January 9, 2011, 8:36 p.m.
Reporting from Tucson — Patricia Maisch watched a gunman shoot a woman who was using her own body to shield her teenage daughter.

"I thought: 'I'm next. I'm next to her. He's going to shoot me. I'm next,' " she said in an interview Sunday.

But two men tackled the gunman when he stopped to reload, and Maisch, 61, restrained his hand as he reached for an ammunition clip, helping stop the attack in a Tucson shopping center that killed six people and wounded 14, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Maisch did not get a good look at the gunman's face as she struggled with him. "I was too busy in the outcome, that things not go any further," she said.
read more here


Crowd members took gunman down

Transition back into civilian life is rarely easy

Returning to Raleigh

By Will Huntsberry • Jan 10th, 2011

Divorce, unemployment, substance abuse and suicide are the most common problems associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, the most common mental ailments of war.

Even for those who don’t come home with such injuries, the transition back into civilian life is rarely easy.

“It’s a little bit different,” said former Army Captain Chris Creasy of Raleigh, with more than a little irony in his voice. Creasy graduated from NC State University in 2006 and in 2009 was Executive Officer of the 664 Ordinance Company tasked with ammunition distribution in Iraq.

“It’s easy to miss the Army,” Creasy said. “The Army provided. It told you where to be. It told you when to be there. The Army told you everything.”

The military tries to smooth the transition for vets by providing a host of services–counseling, help finding jobs, career classes, health care, and money to go to school. With the enormous increase in active duty suicides over the past decade, the military has even introduced mandatory screening for PTSD and brain injury, at the urging of groups such as Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Still, as IAVA notes, follow-up appointments are not currently mandated for all service members who screen positive for possible combat stress injuries.

“I drank a little at first,” said Chris Ruder, another NC State graduate and Army Captain, who is still active in the National Guard.

Ruder, who has been deployed twice and served during the initial push to clear Baghdad of insurgents, said that his drinking calmed down after the first couple months back home but that some servicemen are never able to make a full transition back into civilian life.

“After the first time I came home I was still working at Bragg,” said Ruder. “There were a lot of other guys in the same situation as me who I could talk to. That was helpful. Me and a couple buddies who were also platoon leaders did everything together.”

According to a 2010 Defense Department report (PDF), more than 1,100 active service men and women committed suicide between 2005 and 2009. Divorced service members had the second highest rate of suicide, just less than members with a GED, according to the report.

“A lot of guys overseas are experiencing troubles back home,” said Creasy. As an officer in a foreign war, “You become a parental figure for a lot of these kids. Some of them aren’t making enough money to support their families back home or they’re going through a divorce and they’re having a really hard time.”
read more here
Returning to Raleigh

Mass Burial Planned for 20 Unclaimed Vets

Mass Burial Planned for Unclaimed Vets
January 08, 2011
Associated Press
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. -- Anderson Alston served as an Army master sergeant in World War II. Private Frederick Hunter was a soldier from 1968 to 1971. Myron Sanford Mabry was in the Navy from May 1960 to July 1971. All of them died recently in New York City with no one to claim their remains.
Ordinarily, they would have been quietly buried in a potter's field, their graves unmarked.

Instead, they and 17 other veterans who died in recent months will receive full military honors at a mass funeral this weekend, including prayers over their flag-draped coffins, bagpipers, the playing of taps and local congressmen offering condolences.

The mass service Saturday at Calverton National Cemetery on eastern Long Island - the largest of it kind in U.S. history, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs - is part of a national initiative in recent years to clear a massive backlog of unburied or unclaimed cremated remains of both veterans and non-veterans.

"Our government promised every veteran a decent burial; that doesn't include sitting on a shelf in some funeral home basement," said Fred Salanti of Redding, Calif. The retired Army major is the founder and executive director of the Missing in America Project, which strives to provide a respectful funeral for any veteran who received an honorable discharge.
read more here
Mass Burial Planned for Unclaimed Vets

Too many to blame for Loughner

UPDATE
It looks like Sarah Palin is "locked and loaded" with regrets now.

Palin: 'I hate violence'
By: CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
(CNN) – Sarah Palin is responding to heat from some commentators that her at-times charged rhetoric during the 2010 campaign may have helped inspire attacks against government officials similar to that which occurred in Tucson, Arizona over the weekend.
"I hate violence," Palin told Fox News' Glenn Beck in an e-mail, which Beck relayed on his radio program Monday morning. "I hate war. Our children will not have peace if politicos just capitalize on this." Palin's response was first reported by Politico.

Is it because all the people who kept shooting off hatred now understand that what they say is dangerous? Do they feel to blame or do they fear it could have been them? What is really going on behind all of these regrets when it is too late for all these people? Will any of this really change anything? Will Palin among others stop saying things like "locked and loaded" or will they stop putting gun targets over their political enemies? When does this end?

"News" stations reported that Congresswoman Giffords was dead but that turned out to not be true. Were they so eager to report the death first that no one thought of waiting until they knew for sure? Some bloggers had their fingers flying as fast as the "reporter" talked posting about it.


On FOX it was reported that Jared Loughner was an Afghanistan veteran.

Veterans Demand an Apology From Arizona Rep. Linda Lopez
Posted by Mr. Wolf Jan 9th 2011
Yesterday was a HORRIBLE day.
We’ve seen an obviously unstable and deranged individual, Jared Loughner, shoot and kill innocents; we’ve seen a US Congresswoman declared dead, then not-dead, and we vets have been accused of being the shooter by none other than a state Congresswoman from Arizona.

While listening and watching all of the activity and coverage of this horrific event, one thing has become even more clear- the MFM has come unglued on the Right, on Veterans, and on grass roots organizations. This vitriol has GOT to stop, in both directions. But blaming Veterans just because it involved a gun is over the top. Especially for someone who should know better than to spread rumors.
The topper statement is from State Congressional Representative Linda Lopez, who is about as far-Left as you can get. Not that that’s a particular issue, but, given her next statement, we’ve got a HUGE problem …
”the shooter is likely, from what I’ve heard, an Afghan vet..”
During an interview with Shep Smith (please, do NOT get me started on him) she made these statements- you can hear them about 5 minutes into this interview:

Ms Lopez, on behalf of ALL veterans, and especially the Afghanistan veterans you have repeatedly defaced, I would like to ask this-
WE DEMAND AN APOLOGY
read more here
Veterans Demand an Apology From Arizona Rep. Linda Lopez

Shep Smith just let it go never once asking where she "heard" the shooter was a veteran. This kind of thing is part of the problem in this country. If people are on what is called a news station, they are thought of as being reputable and knowing the facts so that when they are lied to, they know how to respond.

The above article added fuel to the fire by the comment that Lopez is "as far left as you can get" as if that is the blame veterans attitude is rampant among Democrats. What happened to people being responsible for their own actions and what they say? This country has turned everything into a political war and there are no reporters on TV to stop any of it.

People like Sarah Palin were created by the media. What she had to say was taken as truth by the "right" and made fun of by the "left" but there were very few people with no political motivation to tell the truth and stop any of it. When Palin thought it was good to put a target over districts with Democrats, she was allowed to inflame the hatred. Too many others were allowed to say what they wanted just as they were allowed to make any claim they wanted to while the political ads were taking up most of the air time across the country.

Loughner was allowed to get his hands on a gun legally when even the college he attended thought he was dangerous. The list of what went wrong goes on and now the media and politicians seem to want to stop it? It is all a bit too late to be wondering and asking what part they played in all of this. They may have wanted to increase ratings by feeding the divide but what they did was make it impossible for American citizens to just be Americans. Everything has turned into a political war.

The fact that the troops can be in real wars serving side by side with others with a different political view, willing to die for them, is one of the biggest factors that is missed by everyone. When veterans get together, there may be debates about political views but they are not all so important that they forget what really matters and the brotherhood is firm. The bond they share as veterans matters more than anything else.

We as Americans need to stop allowing all the hatred on both sides. We are not stronger when lies are allowed to live on. We are not united in the common good of this nation when hatred replaces a difference of political opinion.

When you listen to the comments made on both sides now, each side points the finger at the other wanting to blame someone and score some points. The point is, no one won anything but too many lost everything.

Members of congress no longer will feel safe to hold an event in their communities. People going to the political events will not feel safe. Shoppers at the grocery store will not feel safe even though they were not part of the small group meeting the Congresswoman. The families of the people killed including a 9 year old girl will not feel safe and their lives are changed forever. The survivors and their families will not feel safe again. While a political war may seem harmless it destroys everything.

If you know the truth and do not speak up when you hear a lie, you are a liar. This is what many in the media have forgotten so whatever political opinion viewers have, they hear what they want to by the station they watch and this is all they need to know. If you watch FOX cable news, you get support if you are on the "right" and if you are on the "left" you get support from MSNBC. If you are in the middle, you can count on CNN to feed into both sides but they seem to try harder to be fair. What happened to just reporting the news with no opinion or agenda?

What happened to being a member of congress and wanting what is best for the nation instead of what is best for your political side? When politicians say their number one job is to defeat Obama, elected by a majority of the nation, they should have been forced to be too ashamed to admit it but they were cheered no matter what problems this nation had going on that needed to be foremost in their thoughts. When Bush was president there was a war going on from the other side and no matter what he did, he was attacked for it. All of us suffered and will keep suffering as long as this goes on without anyone doing anything about any of it.

Blind Iraq Vet runs Disney Marathon with Lt. Colonel

Disney marathoner lost his eyesight while serving in Iraq
By Mark Jenkins, Reporter
Last Updated: Sunday, January 09, 2011 2:17 PM
LAKE BUENA VISTA --
At 5:30 a.m. and 45 degrees, more than 18,000 athletes pounded the pavement for a morning marathon.

The runners ranged from professionals to amateurs, to those who can't walk and another who can't see.

While serving in Iraq, Captain Ivan Castro was nearly killed in a mortar attack that took his eyesight.

After numerous surgeries, he is now more active than most people.

"I cycle swim, I climb, I do triathlons. But the most important thing is that I can still serve," said Castro.

This was his 14th marathon.

Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Bryan ran with Castro in the Disney marathon, attached to each other by a shoe lace.

Castro has been called courageous and heroic, but today he respectfully earned the title "Goofy".

He was one of 5,000 runners that took the goofy challenge of running both the half marathon Saturday and the full marathon Sunday.
read more here
Disney marathoner lost his eyesight while serving in Iraq

PTSD on trial, Jail time for veteran who threatened to kill wife

Jail time for veteran who threatened to kill wife

Shawn Hogendorf of the Prior Lake American reports:

A 31-year-old Prior Lake man, arrested for threatening to kill his wife last fall, was sentenced to serve about four months in jail.

Iraq War veteran who has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), was arrested Sept. 24 after he allegedly threatened to kill his wife during a domestic situation
read more here
Jail time for veteran who threatened to kill wife

PTSD on trial, Iraq veteran gets treatment

Judge: Accused veteran treated for trauma
BY DOUGLAS WALKER • MUNCIE STAR PRESS • JANUARY 8, 2011

WINCHESTER, Ind. -- After nearly 15 months in custody, a Randolph County man who allegedly opened fire on sheriff's deputies has been released and placed on electronic home detention.


Court documents in the case of Andrew S. Ward, 27, reflect negotiations are under way on a plea agreement.

Delaware Circuit Court 1 Judge Marianne Vorhees -- appointed special judge in the Ward case -- said the Marine veteran of the Iraq War had completed an extensive treatment program for those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Court records show Ward was transferred Oct. 27 from the Randolph County jail to the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Battle Creek, and remained there until this week.

Vorhees on Tuesday signed the court order allowing Ward -- who had been held under a $500,000 bond -- to return to his home along Randolph County Road 600-S.

The rural Lynn man was ordered to "follow all treatment recommendations as to aftercare," not to possess guns, drugs or alcohol and to have no contact with his alleged victims.

Ward was arrested Oct. 9, 2009, after he allegedly fired four shotgun blasts at three Randolph County sheriff's deputies as they responded to a 911 call at his sister's house. The deputies were not wounded.
read more here
Accused veteran treated for trauma

PTSD Gulf War Vet wants to know who killed his dog

Family says dog poisoned, killed
Updated: Friday, 07 Jan 2011, 10:32 PM MST
Published : Friday, 07 Jan 2011, 10:32 PM MST

Reporter: Ian Schwartz
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Is there a dog killer is on the loose?

An Albuquerque area family said someone poisoned their young dog and now they want to warn everyone about it.

Charlie was more than a dog to the Walters family, he was a form of therapy.

"I'm a gulf war veteran, and have been diagnosed with PTSD," said Thomas Walters.

Charlie was a good dog, Jeanette Walters said.

He protected their Corrales Heights home in Rio Rancho and he was friendly with the kids, she said.

"You know, he was only a year and a half old, and with what a good dog he was at a year and a half old, I can just imagine how great he would have been down the road with my kids," Jeanette said.

But her young kids Vince and Teri will not grow up with Charlie.
read more here
Family says dog poisoned killed

6 dead, 12 wounded for one man's actions

Posts of the shooter show someone with a lot of hatred and under some kind of mental breakdown. What he wrote is nonsense. Above that what he wrote shows a lot of hate. This kind of hate wounded 12 people and left six more dead. One was a nine year old child. Imagine that kind of hatred that this "man" did not care who had to die, who had to suffer for what he decided to do. Imagine Congresswoman Giffords getting up this morning and planning on meeting the people from her district to hear what they wanted to say to her, then someone also woke up this morning planning to take a gun or a Mom taking her child to meet their congresswoman then having to plan a funeral or any of the other people attending this event having their lives shattered in an instant. THIS IS WHAT HATRED DOES.
(Correction. It was a neighbor who took the child to the event.)

Federal judge dead, congresswoman among 12 wounded in shooting
By the CNN Wire Staff
January 8, 2011 8:16 p.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Giffords aide Gabe Zimmerman is among the six dead, press secretary confirms
The aide, a federal judge and four other died in a shooting outside supermarket
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was wounded along with 11 others
A suspect is in custody; law enforcement sources identify him as Jared Lee Loughner

(CNN) -- A federal judge was killed and a congresswoman gravely wounded Saturday in a shooting outside of a Tucson, Arizona, grocery store, according to police and government officials.
In all, six people died and 12 were wounded in the shooting, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, according to Rick Kastigar, bureau chief for the Pima County Sheriff's Department.
President Barack Obama later said Chief Judge John Roll of the U.S. District Court for Arizona was among the dead.
Gabe Zimmerman, the director of community outreach in the congresswoman's Tuscon office, died in the attack, Giffords' press secretary C.J. Karamargin said, as did a 9-year-old girl, according to authorities.
Who is Gabrielle Giffords? Suspect identified in shooting spree Rep. Giffords reads the 1st Amendment Congresswoman wounded in shooting
Gallery: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
The girl is one of four victims whose identity has not yet been released.
An Arizona law enforcement source and a federal law enforcement source identified the suspect as Jared Lee Loughner. Other law enforcement sources put his age at 22. U.S. Capitol Police said the suspect was in custody.
read more here

Federal judge dead, congresswoman among 12 wounded in shooting

Rep. Michael Grimm's Bill would have disabled vets train dogs

Bill would have disabled vets train dogs
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Jan 8, 2011 9:42:21 EST
A Marine veteran newly elected to Congress wants to establish a pilot program to see if training dogs to help disabled veterans can be therapeutic for veterans with post-traumatic stress or other combat-related mental conditions.

Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., a veteran of the first Gulf War who spent a combined eight years in the Marines, says the Veterans Dog Training Therapy Act “is about veterans helping veterans.”

Grimm’s proposal is modeled after legislation that passed the House last year but was never taken up in the Senate. One change he made in the bill — encouraging that the dogs come from shelters — has earned the measure an endorsement from the Humane Society of the United States.

Getting dogs from shelters not only saves animals’ lives but also reduces costs, because specially bred service dogs can cost up to $50,000 each, according to a press release jointly issued by Grimm and the Humane Society.

Reps. Peter King of New York and Leonard Lance of New Jersey, both Republicans, and Michael Michaud, D-Maine, are original co-sponsors of the bill, which was referred to the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee for consideration.

“So many servicemen and women returning from combat struggle with severe PTSD,” Grimm said in a statement. “My legislation provides an opportunity to ease these symptoms through the process of training service dogs. These dogs — many of which I hope will be saved from shelters — will then be given to physically disabled veterans to assist them with their daily activities.”

read more here
Bill would have disabled vets train dogs

Religious test to curb suicides or get converts?

For my Christian friends out there with the idea this is a good thing, you really need to begin to understand exactly what is going on here. This is not about sending them to any Christian Church but telling them if they are not part of the Fundamentalist Christianity faith, they are basically not good enough. In other words, if they are Catholic, they're going to hell. If they have no faith at all or happen to be Muslim or Hebrew, they need to convert and accept their version of what is right.

Over 60% of the Chaplains in the military have no problem with proselytizing by military chaplains

NPR reported that the Academy would be hosting mandatory religious tolerance seminars for cadets. The Department of Defense has also proactively built worship facilities for those of minority faiths and improved pluralist training for chaplains. Still, of the 2,900 active chaplains with the military, two-thirds are evangelical -- and that number continues to rise.

So yes, even you should fight against forcing faith on the troops since this is not about faith is a good thing but more about one certain branch of one certain faith is all that matters.

Other chaplains have a huge problem with this for a reason. They are there to help soldiers with their spiritual needs and not there to convert them. Many conversations I've had with others ministering to veterans feel the same way. Faith does help them heal and on this we agree that it is vital in the healing process but this does more harm than good when it is coerced. Plus there is a fear they don't know how to do it in the first place even if they begin to discuss the emotional healing that is possible.

Let's say a soldier goes to a chaplain and tells them that he thinks he's evil because he killed someone in Afghanistan. Now let's say he happens to be a member of the Catholic faith. The Fundamentalist Chaplain will tell him that basically he is evil because he does not know Christ the way he should and must convert to be born again. This even though the Catholic faith was one of the first to follow Christ and is right up with there with Orthodox Christians particularly the Greeks, who helped Paul spread Christianity throughout the world. But these two branches of the faith are just not good enough for certain Fundamentalists telling even them they are not right with God.

Now take a soldier with no set of beliefs or one with their own ideas about God and then have them come up against a Fundamentalist supposedly there to take care of the emotional crisis the soldier is going through. Instead of talking to them the way any therapist would, they rebuke them. This is an assault on their beliefs and their right to worship as they see fit to do. It does not gently guide them in the process of building any kind of faith but instead pushes them away.

Each person has the freewill to follow their own path and they decide to go to church or not, which church or group they feel connected to and to believe according to their own understanding and growth. None of this can be forced. If you have teenagers, you know this is true. How many of us have taken our kids to church all their lives only to have them walk away from it for a time? They are lead, then they return of their own freewill or not. It is up to them. Some switch to another church finding they fit in better with another group. This is not only the right of an American to worship as they see fit or not at all, but the basic desire of God for each person to worship of their own freewill.

If a Chaplain fails to take care of the people placed into their lives, they have failed God but if it is a military Chaplain, they have not only failed God, they have failed the country formed for the free practice of religious matters. This has also been complicated since military Chaplains are used in place of mental health workers. If they are not taking care of the soldier in crisis situations because they are too busy trying to convert them this leaves the soldier with nowhere to turn. They end up abandoned.

Every member of the clergy, every Chaplain and every service organization needs to take a stand and stop this now before more suffer under this abuse. Sixty percent of the military Chaplains may have no problem with this, but forty percent are still trying to do what they took an oath to the constitution to do. This article talks about atheists having a problem with Fundamentalists but it isn't just them. It is anyone who is not one of them.

OLBERMANN: The Military Is Trying To Curb Suicide Rates By Sending Soldiers To Church
Steven Loeb
Jan. 7, 2011, 10:59 AM

Boy, atheists are getting a lot of attention on the cablesphere these days.
Just when we thought that discrimination had finally been eradicated from the military, now Keith Olbermann is reporting on a new lawsuit from The Military Association of Atheists and Free Thinkers. The military has been giving tests to curb suicide rates and post traumatic stress disorder, but part of the test asks about the soldier's spirituality. And if they fail that portion of the test? The recommendation is that they go to church or pray.


Read more: The Military Is Trying To Curb Suicide

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Psychologist who inspired CIA's Torture Program behind spiritual test?

How did this happen? Torture is anti-spiritual but the same person came up with a test to measure the spiritual aspects of soldiers? Did they have a clue when they were paid if this would work or not? Trauma is Greek meaning wound and trauma is an assault on the spirit/soul so it is vital that the spiritual is included in on healing as much as the mind and body but it cannot be forced or it has the opposite result. Just one more thing the military has done that shows not only poor judgement but a total lack of understanding.

Army's "Spiritual Fitness" Test Comes Under Fire
Wednesday 05 January 2011
by: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t | Investigative Report

Test Was Designed by Psychologist Who Inspired CIA's Torture Program

An experimental, Army mental-health, fitness initiative designed by the same psychologist whose work heavily influenced the psychological aspects of the Bush administration's torture program is under fire by civil rights groups and hundreds of active-duty soldiers. They say it unconstitutionally requires enlistees to believe in God or a "higher power" in order to be deemed "spiritually fit" to serve in the Army.

Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) is a $125 million "holistic fitness program" unveiled in late 2009 and aimed at reducing the number of suicides and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cases, which have reached epidemic proportions over the past year due to multiple deployments to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the substandard care soldiers have received when they return from combat. The Army states that it can accomplish its goal by teaching its service members how to be psychologically resilient and resist "catastrophizing" traumatic events. Defense Department documents obtained by Truthout state CSF is Army Chief of Staff George Casey's "third highest priority."

CSF is comprised of the Soldier Fitness Tracker and Global Assessment Tool, which measures soldiers' "resilience" in five core areas: emotional, physical, family, social and spiritual. Soldiers fill out an online survey made up of more than 100 questions, and if the results fall into a red area, they are required to participate in remedial courses in a classroom or online setting to strengthen their resilience in the disciplines in which they received low scores. The test is administered every two years. More than 800,000 Army soldiers have taken it thus far.

But for the thousands of "Foxhole Atheists" like 27-year-old Sgt. Justin Griffith, the spiritual component of the test contains questions written predominantly for soldiers who believe in God or another deity, meaning nonbelievers are guaranteed to score poorly and will be forced to participate in exercises that use religious imagery to "train" soldiers up to a satisfactory level of spirituality.
read more here
Army's Spiritual Fitness Test Comes Under Fire

Support, donations pour in for CNN Hero homebuilder

Support, donations pour in for Hero homebuilder
By Kathleen Toner, CNN
January 6, 2011 9:55 p.m. EST


Free homes for injured troops
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Dan Wallrath and his group, Operation Finally Home, build houses for injured U.S. veterans
For his efforts, Wallrath was named a top 10 CNN Hero in November
The exposure has helped Wallrath help more troops and their families
He just partnered with "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" to help a victim of the Fort Hood attack

Salado, Texas (CNN) -- Dan Wallrath spent 30 years as a homebuilder in Texas, but it wasn't until 2005 that he found his life's work.

After helping renovate the home of a young Marine who had been severely wounded in Iraq, Wallrath realized there were thousands of other injured war veterans who needed a hand. So he decided to help them by doing what he knew best -- building homes -- and giving them away, mortgage-free.

For his efforts, Wallrath was recognized in November as one of the year's top 10 CNN Heroes. The exposure has helped take his organization -- now known as Operation Finally Home -- to the next level.

"It's just been incredible," Wallrath said last month. "We've been getting phone calls and e-mails and donations from all over the world."

Since the airing of "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute," Operation Finally Home has received more than $100,000 in contributions -- as well as three pieces of property that will be used for future homes. All told, being honored as a CNN Hero has enabled Wallrath to more than double his impact.

So far, his group has completed nine homes, and it has 13 more planned or under construction.
The spotlight also led "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" to partner with Wallrath on a special project last month: building a home for one of the victims of the 2009 shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas.
read more here
Support, donations pour in for Hero homebuilder

Homeless Vietnam Veteran Remembered For Compassion, Kindness

Homeless Vietnam Veteran Remembered For Compassion, Kindness
Services to honor Dale Grunder scheduled for Saturday.
By Kristofer Noceda
The homeless Vietnam veteran found dead Sunday morning was known in the streets as "Papa."

Dale Grunder, 65, a longtime transient known for carrying an American flag around town, is remembered by friends as a compassionate, giving and kind-hearted man.

"He had a smile that was so big it could light up the world," said Darcie Gardiner, who referred to Grunder as her "street father."

"Dale always took care and looked after me," she said.

Gardiner, 44, and also homeless, was drinking alcohol with Grunder the night before he was found dead on a bench near the water fountain and park plaza on Railroad Avenue, just behind the Grocery Outlet.

"I was drunk in the park and he was, too," she said. "I blanked out and woke up to cops kicking me and telling me to get out of there."

Grunder, however, never woke up.

read more here
Homeless Vietnam Veteran Remembered For Compassion, Kindness

Unemployment jumps in December for young vets

Unemployment jumps in December for young vets
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 7, 2011 9:59:55 EST
Labor Department employment statistics released Friday show that young veterans continue to have serious and growing problems finding work in a tight job market, while older veterans are doing better than the general population.

The Jan. 7 release of December data shows the national unemployment rate fell slightly, from 9.8 percent in November to 9.4 percent in December, and that the unemployment rate for all veterans over the age of 18 remained steady, at 8.3 percent.

For younger veterans, the new report shows a dramatic increase in unemployment, from 9.4 percent in November to 11.7 percent in December.
read more here
Unemployment jumps in December for young vets

Hood sees twofold increase in suicides from prior year

Hood sees twofold increase in suicides from prior year

Did it do any good to have predicted this would happen well over a year ago?

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Aftermath of Fort Hood shootings may be worse


As the news reports kept coming out today about the carnage at Fort Hood, my greatest fears were not for today, but for the next few months ahead. No one is talking about "secondary stressors" and this needs to be addressed quickly.

There are crisis teams heading there according to the press briefing by Lt. Gen. Robert Cone. This is one of the best things they can do. I spent months taking this kind of training and it is very thorough. The issue that we need to be concerned about is when there are thousands of soldiers, combat soldiers with multiple tours, many of them are dealing with mild PTSD. Mild PTSD is not that hard to cope with. They live pretty normal lives while covering up the pain they have inside. Many even cope well the rest of their lives but many do not. Like a ticking time bomb, PTSD rests waiting to strike if untreated. It waits for the next traumatic event and then mild PTSD turns into PTSD on steroids.

These are the soldiers that will need the greatest help as soon as possible.

These bases are very well secured. That makes the soldiers and their families feel safe. Think about going into combat and then making it home alive where you are supposed to be safe. Then having this happen.

I was at Fort Hood in March. I had an auto rental and even though I had a military issued ID, that was not good enough at the guard house. I had to show my rental agreement every time I drove onto the base. Even if you have a Department of Defense sticker on your car, you still have to show your military ID. That makes them feel they are safe. Then away from harm, away from combat, they end up having to face something like this from not only one of their own, but a Major and a Doctor who is supposed to be there for them, trying to kill them.

Crisis teams will address the traumatic events of today, but the soldiers that have already been involved in traumatic events cutting into them will need far greater help than anyone is really prepared to deliver. This is my greatest fear for them.

Then we have troops from Fort Hood and other bases deployed into Iraq and Afghanistan wondering who they can trust now after one of their own did something like this. None of this is good and the aftermath may be worse than this day itself.
Aftermath of Fort Hood shootings may be worse

There was not enough being done to address it before the shootings and there wasn't enough done after. I know trauma, human nature and what can follow, but if anyone in charge knew the same thing but did nothing, they should face a trail to answer for what they did not do.

They boosted staff but say nothing about the kind of training or understanding these people had. If they were anything like Hassan, they would do more harm than good. Maybe Col. Christopher Philbrick should have asked some of us what we think is not being done and then maybe, just maybe they'd finally save some lives.

Army: 22 suicides in 2010 at Fort Hood

One was Army Sgt. Douglas Hale Jr., who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after completing his second tour in 2007. He texted his mother, Glenda Moss, on July 6 asking forgiveness before shooting himself to death in a restaurant bathroom near Fort Hood.

During the last week of September, four soldiers committed suicide.
Despite suicide prevention efforts, Hood sees twofold increase in suicides from prior year; some say shooting massacre may have been contributing factor
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Wednesday Jan 5, 2011 21:57:41 EST
The Army’s largest post saw a record number of soldiers kill themselves in 2010 despite a mental health effort aimed at reversing the trend.

The Army says 22 soldiers have either killed themselves or are suspected of doing so last year at Fort Hood, Texas, twice the number from 2009.

That is a rate of 45 deaths per 100,000, compared to 20-per-100,000 rate among civilians in the same age group and a 22-per-100,000 rate Army-wide.

The Army had boosted staffing and psychiatric services to address the problem, particularly after the fatal shootings of 13 people on the post in November 2009. The Army says that Maj. Nidal Hasan, a psychiatrist, fired his pistol indiscriminately at soldiers waiting for routine medical care.

Fort Hood now has one of the largest counseling staffs in the Army with more than 170 behavioral health workers.

“Any time they’ve asked for it, the Army has done everything it can to provide assistance,” said Army Col. Christopher Philbrick, deputy commander of an Army task force on reducing suicides.

Philbrick said it “has been very frustrating for us to figure out what we haven’t done right.”

Many of the 48,000 soldiers at Fort Hood have either returned from war zones or are on their way to them.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/01/gannett-army-hood-sees-22-suicides-010511/

President Signed Improvements to Post-9/11 GI Bill

President Signed Improvements to Post-9/11 GI Bill
Many Non-College Programs and State Service of Reserves and Guard now
Covered

WASHINGTON (Jan. 5, 2011) - To bring the educational benefits of the
Post-9/11 GI Bill closer to more Veterans and Service Members, President
Obama signed legislation Jan. 4 that streamlines the 18-month-old
education program administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA).

"Since the first GI Bill in 1944, this unique educational program has
adapted to the needs of America's Veterans, active-duty personnel,
reservists and Guardsmen," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K.
Shinseki. "Like its forbearers, the Post-9/11 GI Bill is growing to
ensure the men and women who serve this nation in uniform receive
valuable education benefits from a grateful nation.

"On behalf of Veterans and the many who serve them at VA, we would like
to thank the president for his support, as well as members of Congress
and our Veterans service organization partners for helping make this
bill a reality," Shinseki added.

Among the provisions of the legislation are:

* Paying for on-the-job training, some flight training;
apprenticeship training and correspondence courses;

* Allowing reservists and Guardsmen to have their time supporting
emergencies called by their state governors credited to the time needed
to qualify for educational benefits;

* Providing one half of the national average for the program's
housing allowance to students enrolled in distance learning;

* Pro-rating the housing allowance to exclude payments when
students are not in class;

* Allowing students on active duty receive the stipend for books
and supplies;

* Allowing people eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill, but
participating in VA's Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E)
benefits to choose between the GI Bill's housing allowance or VR&E's
subsistence allowance;

* Permitting reimbursement for more than one "license and
certification" test;

* Reimbursing fees to take national admission tests, such as SAT,
ACT, GMAT and LSAT; and

* Establishing a national cap of $17,500 annually for tuition and
fees in a private or a foreign school, not including contributions by
educational institutions under the "Yellow Ribbon" program.

Information about the new provisions is available on the Internet at
www.gibill.va.gov .

By the end of December 2010, VA issued nearly $7.2 billion in tuition,
housing, and stipends for more than 425,000 Veterans or eligible family
members pursuing higher education under the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

Bun pit linked to another soldier's death

Soldier from W. Babylon dies of rare cancer
Originally published: January 3, 2011 4:58 PM
Updated: January 3, 2011 9:28 PM
By SOPHIA CHANG AND VICTOR MANUEL RAMOS


After a long year of watching the slow death of her husband, Army Sgt. William McKenna, Dina McKenna decided the final goodbye should be dignified without painful lingering.

"Because of my children, I wanted to keep it brief. We've been suffering for a whole year with his cancer and how much he has deteriorated," she said Monday after her husband was buried at Calverton National Cemetery. He died in Florida on Tuesday at the age of 41 from a rare form of lymphoma.

There was no eulogy at his funeral at the Johnstons' Wellwood Funeral Home in Lindenhurst, just a few miles from the West Babylon neighborhood where McKenna grew up.
read more here
Soldier from W. Babylon dies of rare cancer

September 11 survivors show lasting traumatic stress

15% seems low considering we've been talking about one out of three for PTSD (some experts say one out of five) but you have to consider another factor here. Right after 9-11 trauma teams rushed out and got to work taking care of survivors. This shows that even with immediate help, 15% had their lives changed that day above others. What do you think the chances are for the troops coming back from multiple times with their lives on the line and not getting any help after each time? Not good odds at all. So why is it that no one in the government was ready for the troops coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan? They never thought to treat them like humans instead of "soldiers" trained to do their jobs.

September 11 survivors show lasting traumatic stress

By Amy Norton
NEW YORK | Tue Jan 4, 2011 4:41pm EST
(Reuters Health) - Many civilian survivors of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center were still suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress several years after the 2001 disaster, a new study finds.

Surveys of nearly 3,700 people who escaped the Twin Towers that day found that nearly all -- 96 percent -- still had at least one symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) two to three years later.

And of those, 15 percent screened positive for full-blown PTSD -- a rate about four times higher than that seen in the general population in any given year.

The study, reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology, is the first to focus on the long-term mental health of the people who were actually in the Twin Towers on the morning of September 11.

Past studies have looked at the general public, or people who lived near the World Trade Center, said senior researcher Dr. Sandro Galea, of Columbia University in New York.

The study found that people who had escaped from floors above the planes' "impact zone" were at greater risk of PTSD than those who escaped from lower floors. Similarly, people who were evacuated relatively later, or who had to run from the cloud of debris sent out by the collapsing towers, were also at elevated risk.

read more here

September 11 survivors show lasting traumatic stress

Study of Guard soldiers shows effects of mild brain injury not forever

Readers of this blog know I had TBI when I was very young and there was very little known about what happens to the brain after injury. I really should not have survived the fall but by the grace of God for some reason, I did. There are some things that will never be right about my brain, (stop thinking about jokes for now like my friends always come up with) but considering what my head went through, it's not all so bad. You can learn how to adapt. I had to see a speech therapist for a couple of years. Memory problems were overcome by learning some tricks like focusing on what I had to remember, writing down what was important and pretty much tossing things out once I was done with some useless information that really meant nothing. Unfortunately this meant that names were forgotten just about as soon as I was introduced to someone but their face was always remembered. This is a good report because it shows that while PTSD does not "go away" mild brain injury does and as far as traumatic brain injury, if my life is any indication, that can get better too.

Study of Guard soldiers shows effects of mild brain injury fade over time
by Jessica Mador, Minnesota Public Radio
January 4, 2011
St. Paul, Minn. — Results from an ongoing survey of Minnesota National Guard troops conducted by researchers at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center show that most cases of mild brain injury or concussion are likely to fade over time.

Researchers say the survey, which was published in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, also sheds more light on post-traumatic stress symptoms.

The findings could be good news for the thousands of Iraqi and Afghanistan veterans believed to have suffered mild brain injury during combat, although it's unclear how many troops have come home with TBI.

Minneapolis VA Medical Center psychologist Melissa Polusny says the number of soldiers who report an injury that made them feel dazed or confused, or forced them to lose consciousness, varies widely.

Polusny and her colleagues surveyed more than 950 Guard soldiers, and in one survey, as many as 22 percent of them reported suffering a mild traumatic brain injury while deployed.

"When someone hears the word brain injury, I think they make assumptions about what that is," she said. "What we are talking about is concussion, which is sometimes referred to as mild traumatic brain injury."

Mild traumatic brain injury differs from moderate to severe TBI. Polusny says there are a number of common symptoms.

"Like headache, or difficulty concentrating, or irritability or memory difficulties, maybe ringing in the ears or tinitis," she said. "These are grouped together and referred to as post-oncussive symptoms."

The survey followed National Guard soldiers who served in Iraq in 2006 and 2007. Researchers were looking at the associations between concussion and PTSD symptoms, and whether mild TBI caused long-term effects.
read more here
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/01/04/brain-injury-study/

PTSD signals longer-term health problems

Study: PTSD signals longer-term health problems
U. S. soldiers who experienced post-traumatic stress disorder during combat in Iraq were more likely to experience longer-term health problems including depression, headaches, tinnitis, irritability and memory problems compared with soldiers who experienced only concussions without PTSD. The study concludes that screening for PTSD among troops is critical for identifying and treating long-term health problems. The findings are published in the JAMA Archives of General Psychiatry.

Since Operation Desert Storm launched 20 years ago, millions of U.S. troops have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Combat exposure often places troops at risk of suffering psychological trauma and injury when they are exposed to the blasts from improvised explosive devices, according to background information in the study, and traumatic brain injury has often been called the “signature injury” of the conflicts. The study says that most TBIs are mild – better known as concussions. The symptoms of concussion, or MTBI, include loss of consciousness, loss of memory, dizziness, and headache.

Recognizing the increased risk of MTBI and PTSD, the Department of Defense and the VA have instituted post-deployment screening to identify service members who may require further treatment or evaluation. The researchers explain that while other studies have shown that PTSD is linked to long-term health problems and disability, less is known about the long-term effects of concussion on health problems.

University of Minnesota Medical School and Minneapolis Veterans Affairs health care system researchers surveyed 2,677 soldiers from a U.S. National Guard Brigade Combat Team stationed in Iraq. Participants completed their first questionnaire in 2007, one month before their 16-month deployment ended. They answered questions about whether they had experienced a concussion, and whether they were experiencing symptoms of PTSD and depression. 1,935 of those who took the first survey agreed to participate in further research. One year after they completed their first survey, the soldiers were mailed a second survey and 953 soldiers responded.

The first survey revealed that 9.2% of soldiers experienced symptoms of concussions and 30.2 percent of those soldiers had probable PTSD at the time of the survey. When they took the second survey, 22 percent of soldiers, twice as many, reported they had experienced concussions and of those, 30.4 percent got a diagnosis of probable PTSD. Reporting PTSD at the time of the first survey was strongly associated with having long-term health problems.
read more here
PTSD signals longer-term health problems

Soldier's send off followed by tragedy when fiance dies in accident

Woman Sends Off Fiance To Afghanistan, Dies In Crash

Woman, Daughter Killed In I-85 Wreck

Gordon Dill, WYFF News 4 Anchor/Reporter
POSTED: 8:06 am EST January 5, 2011


CHEROKEE COUNTY, S.C. -- Just hours after her seeing her fiancé off for a tour of during in Afghanistan, a woman and her daughter were killed in a single-vehicle wreck, Cherokee County Coroner Dennis Fowler said.

Fowler said 27-year-old Shawna Geraldine Zamora and her 9-year-old daughter Lillyana Zamora died in the crash on Interstate 85 just after 2 a.m. Tuesday. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

read more here
Woman Sends Off Fiance To Afghanistan

After cheating death, the real challenge of living begins

I supposed that I must be part of the two thirds considering the worst experiences to be life changing for the better. I am not as insane as that sounds. For me, each time changed me, made me more loving, living in the moment and above all, more forgiving. I value the people in my life more because I know that at any moment something can change all of it. Someone else may worry about it to the point where they stop living and enjoying the living but this is a story about what is possible after trauma and it is possible for anyone. Even people with PTSD can heal if not be cured and the next set of changes for them can be for the better.


After cheating death, the real challenge of living begins
How trauma can upend lives and, wondrously, transform some for the better


By Jennifer Wolff Perrine

When Julia Ferganchick learned storms had delayed her connecting flight from Dallas to Little Rock, Arkansas, she found a seat at an airport bar and ordered a Bloody Mary. The 30-year-old writing and rhetoric professor had just spent Memorial Day weekend on Coronado Island, off the coast of San Diego. She was eager to return home to start the summer semester at the University of Arkansas, where she had applied for tenure. Now she was irritated; the bad weather would push her arrival close to midnight.
Two hours and 12 minutes behind schedule, American Airlines flight 1420 took off. Once above the clouds, the flight was relatively smooth, but as it neared Little Rock, they flew into lightning and severe thunderstorms. “Quite a light show off the left-hand side of the aircraft,” the pilot announced. “I’m going to have to slightly overfly the airport in order to turn back around to land.” As the plane circled and dipped, it jolted in the wind. “I knew—all of us knew—that this wasn’t the feeling of a plane touching down,” Ferganchick says.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 slammed into the ground going 184 miles an hour, careening off the end of the runway into a flood plain, where it smashed into a steel light stanchion and split in two just four rows behind Ferganchick’s seat. Her seat belt kept her torso in place, but the impact ripped her blue clogs from her feet and wrenched her back so badly she herniated a disk in her spine. Still, she was alive. And as fire enveloped the cabin, she could see a way out, through a jagged gash in the plane’s ceiling. Ferganchick clawed her way over mangled seats and carry-on bags until she found herself in the open air in the middle of a hailstorm, standing barefoot atop a plane that seemed ready to explode.

Some never recover. But most do. In fact, nearly two thirds of trauma victims, even those who had extreme pain, say they ultimately benefited from the aftermath of their experience, according to the research of Richard G. Tedeschi, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Tedeschi and his colleagues have tracked outcomes for people who survived accidents and other traumas, such as life-threatening illnesses or the death of a child, and identified a phenomenon they call post-traumatic growth: Some survivors grow closer to people they love; others develop a sense of personal strength or appreciation for life. Still others deepen their spiritual beliefs or change their career and life goals. Women are more likely than men to report these benefits, and even those who are most impaired at first can find their way, as Ferganchick did, to feeling enriched by their ordeal.
What can these women teach the rest of us? As researchers learn more about what makes people resilient, they hope to develop therapies that could lessen negative responses and promote post-traumatic growth instead. “It’s not about getting over it‚ it’s about processing it in the most meaningful way,” Tedeschi says. “You still have your fears and grief and suffering, but you have made your suffering meaningful. If you can learn to do that, you can get through the bad stuff in life and find value in the struggle.”
read more here
After cheating death, the real challenge of living begins

Our New Puppy

Last year we had to put down our Golden Retriever Brandon. He almost made it to 14. Sunday we went to Pet Smart in Oviedo FL and adopted a 7 month old Lab-Border Collie mix, Mac from Save A Life. It's been a long time since we had a puppy and he is wearing me out but he is a very lovable BIG puppy so I am sure once we get past the hard part of getting him used to not eating my husband's slippers and thinking the dining room is his bathroom, we'll be all set! So meet Mac.

Police Chief forced out after Sanford police officer's son hit homeless man

Sanford police chief forced out the same day cop's son goes to jail, accused of attacking homeless man

By Rene Stutzman, Orlando Sentinel
5:13 p.m. EST, January 3, 2011


There's a new casualty in the case of a Sanford police officer's son who threw a sucker punch that floored a homeless man: retiring Police Chief Brian Tooley.

Sanford's City Commission voted Monday to dismiss Tooley.

He was scheduled to retire Jan. 31, but at a special meeting, commissioners voted to oust him immediately.

As of Tuesday, the department will be headed temporarily by former chief Steve Harriett, who currently works as chief deputy at the Seminole County Sheriff's Office.

Also Monday morning, Acting Chief Capt. Jerry Hargrett admitted at a public meeting that the officer's son, Justin Collison, 21, should have been arrested a month ago, the night he punched the homeless man. Sanford police questioned Collison, put him in the back of a patrol car but did not handcuff or arrest him.

read more here
Sanford police chief forced out

Central figure in Vietnam Memorial Wall body found in land fill

Dumped body was Vietnam War vet
Slay victim a defense consultant for US
BY CHAD LIVENGOOD • THE NEWS JOURNAL • JANUARY 3, 2011

Newark police have identified the body discovered on New Year's Eve at the Cherry Island Landfill in Wilmington as 66-year-old John P. Wheeler III of New Castle.

Wheeler, a U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War who lived part time in Old New Castle, was a defense consultant in Washington, D.C., and had a long career in public service, working in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Wheeler was past chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which built the memorial on the National Mall in Washington.

His death has been ruled a homicide.

Newark police had a crime-scene van at Wheeler's home at 108 W. Third St. in New Castle on Sunday, with crime-scene tape roping off the prominent three-story brick home with black shutters.

Friends and neighbors were shocked to learn Wheeler had died.
read more here
Dumped body was Vietnam War vet

Army has learned nothing and redeployed soldier after suicide attempts

The Army declared him fit for duty and ordered him to Afghanistan after he had twice attempted suicide at Fort Campbell, Ky., and after he had been sent to a mental institution near the base, the home of the 101st.

Several Warnings, Then a Soldier’s Lonely Death

By JAMES RISEN
Published: January 1, 2011

WASHINGTON — A gentle snow fell on the funeral of Staff Sgt. David Senft at Arlington National Cemetery on Dec. 16, when his bitterly divided California family came together to say goodbye. His 5-year-old son received a flag from a grateful nation.

But that brief moment of peace could not hide the fact that for his family and friends and the soldiers who had served with him in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, too many unanswered questions remained about Sergeant Senft’s lonely death in a parked sport utility vehicle on an American air base in Afghanistan, and about whether the Army could have done more to prevent it.

Officially, the Army says only that Sergeant Senft, 27, a crew chief on a Black Hawk helicopter in the 101st Airborne Division’s aviation brigade, was killed as a result of “injuries sustained in a noncombat related incident” at Kandahar Air Base on Nov. 15. No specific cause of death has been announced. Army officials say three separate inquiries into the death are under way.

But his father, also named David Senft, an electrician from Grass Valley, Calif., who had worked in Afghanistan for a military contractor, is convinced that his son committed suicide, as are many of his friends and family members and the soldiers who served with him.

The evidence appears overwhelming. An investigator for the Army’s Criminal Investigative Division, which has been looking into the death, has told Sergeant Senft’s father by e-mail that his son was found dead with a single bullet hole in his head, a stolen M-4 automatic weapon in his hands and his body slumped over in the S.U.V., which was parked outside the air base’s ammunition supply point. By his side was his cellphone, displaying a text message with no time or date stamp, saying only, “I don’t know what to say, I’m sorry.” (Mr. Senft shared the e-mails from the C.I.D. investigator with The New York Times.)

With Sergeant Senft, the warning signs were blaring.
read more here
Then a Soldier’s Lonely Death

Hero “neighbor” lives in his car

Hero “neighbor” lives in his car
January 2, 2011 posted by Chaplain Kathie
This headline sounds like a good story as it is but it only gets better from here. One of the neighbors, it turns out, is no longer living in the building. He’s living in his car.

Neighbors rescue man from blaze
An evicted former tenant is among those who help pull the resident to safety
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 30, 2010
Infamous as a drug haven, Kalihi’s Akepo Lane can now also be called the home of a hero.
An elderly man was rescued from his burning first-floor studio apartment at Akepo and North King Street by neighbors late Tuesday night.
The man who stepped into the apartment to pull out the victim was Gerald Arthur, 61, who had lived in the building himself until he was evicted about three months ago.
“I lost my job, my old lady lost hers, we couldn’t pay the rent,” Arthur said. He moved into his car, “the Honda Inn,” parked a few hundred yards down Akepo. His girlfriend, who he said is suffering from cancer, is now staying with family in Ewa Beach.
read more here
Hero “neighbor” lives in his car

Navy Officer dead after jumping to his death

Officer Jumps to Death After Cocaine Arrest
December 27, 2010
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
MANILA -- A 35-year-old US Navy officer jumped to his death on Monday in the Philippines after he was arrested at an airport for allegedly carrying cocaine, police said.
Lieutenant Commander Scintar Mejia was about to board a flight to Los Angeles from Manila on Sunday when a pack of cocaine was found in his luggage.
read more here
Officer Jumps to Death After Cocaine Arrest