Tuesday, September 21, 2010

2 injured, 1 dead in Fort Bliss shooting

2 injured, 1 dead in Fort Bliss shooting
By Maggie Ybarra and Chris Roberts El Paso Times
Posted: 09/20/2010 11:54:09 PM MDT


Click photo to enlargeA military police vehicle blocked traffic on Cassidy Road on... (Victor Calzada / El Paso Times)123 FORT BLISS -- A man shot two women in the head at a Fort Bliss convenience store before he was killed by military police Monday.
Garrison Commander Col. Joseph Simonelli said military police received reports of several shots fired at one of the Army post's convenience stores about 3 p.m. The military police responded to the shooting in less than three minutes, he said.
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2 injured, 1 dead in Fort Bliss shooting

Lady Gaga fights for 14,000 discharged over don't ask don't tell

Lady Gaga's Rally To Feature Testimonial From Discharged Marine
'I got the chance to meet her in D.C., and she genuinely cared about the issue,' former Marine Danny Hernandez says of Gaga.
By Kyle Anderson


Since she first broke into the mainstream two years ago, Lady Gaga has used her fame to bring gay rights issues to the forefront. In the past few weeks, she has focused squarely on the repeal of the U.S. military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, including bringing several casualties of the law to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles and recording a video that encourages her fans to contact their senators to oppose the policy. On Monday (September 20), Gaga will host a rally in Portland, Maine, organized by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), in an effort to get the two senators from the state — Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins — to vote to break a filibuster and repeal the DADT policy in Tuesday's procedural vote in Washington, D.C.

Those gathered at the rally will also hear testimonial from Danny Hernandez, a former Marine who was discharged from the military for "don't ask, don't tell" violations. "I was in the Marine Corps and was under investigation for violating 'don't ask, don't tell,' and I ended up working with SLDN in Washington," Hernandez explained to MTV News in a Skype interview from Portland.

Though Hernandez was a victim of a "don't ask, don't tell" discharge — one among 14,000 similar cases — he hasn't let that get in the way of his dream of service. "I've been wanting to serve in the military for as long as I can remember," he said. "My brother, my cousins — everybody is in the Marine Corps. It's a family thing.
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Lady Gaga Rally

Searching for Stolen Marine's Truck

Searching for Stolen Marine's Truck
Reported by: Polo Sandoval
Last Update: 12:24 am


WESLACO - A Valley Marine's mother is making a plea to whomever stole her son's truck.

Sylvia Salazar borrowed her son's truck and parked it in a lot on east frontage road yesterday morning.

When she came out of the store, the truck was gone. Salazar is upset and angry that someone would steal the truck of a United States Marine deployed overseas.

Salazar says, "That truck means a lot to him. [It] means a lot to us because he left it under our care, and I lost it. So that hurts, that hurts a lot."

The truck is a dark grey four-door Dodge Ram.

It has Texas license plates ANO-5210.

If you’ve seen it, you’re asked to call Weslaco CRIMESTOPPERS at 968-8477.
KRGV.com

Florida has 18,000 homeless veterans

"Where they live many times is in the woods or on the street. In the state of Florida, there are 18,000 homeless veterans, 4,500 in Central Florida and about 1,000 Brevard County alone." George Taylor

Homeless veterans get some much needed help
By Margaret Kavanagh, Reporter
Last Updated: Saturday, September 18, 2010 10:25 PM
TITUSVILLE
They put their lives on the line, served our country and now don't have a place to live.

The problem of homeless veterans plagues our state. News 13 attended an event run by the National Veterans Homeless Support Group in Titusville called Stand Down. The group is working to teach other veteran groups around the state how to organize similar events.

Veteran Philip Campbell received a brand new motorized bike. It will help him get to classes at Brevard County Community. The veteran is homeless and living in a tent in the woods.

"Such a shock, the honor that they gave me, the bike, it's a, I'm amazed, I'm amazed," Campbell said.

He was one of 350 veterans that attended the Stand Down event run by the group National Veterans Homeless Support. They received clothes, food, toiletries, medical and legal advice.

The founder of the organization, George Taylor, once lived in the woods himself. He understands what it's like to be a homeless veteran, but said now-a-days it's tougher for the soldiers coming home.
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Homeless veterans get some much needed help

Monday, September 20, 2010

Bronx Church prays for comfort after deadly crash that claimed Bishop, his wife and others

Bronx Church Looks to Prayer After Deadly Crash
By
Mara Gay
(Sept. 20) -- Even after a horrible accident took the lives of their bishop, his wife and four other congregants, the members of a devastated Bronx church trust that God has a plan.

"We know God knows best and doesn't make mistakes, but it's still hard," church member Delores Tulloch told the New York Daily News. But, she said, "I'm still trying to figure out how this is part of his plan."

Bishop Simon White, 55, his wife, Zelda, 52, and four other members of Joy Fellowship Christian Assemblies were killed Saturday when their van blew a tire and rolled across a New York State highway, sending eight people flying out of the vehicle. Sunday, worshippers at the church looked to music and praise to push through their grief.

Members of the evangelical church sang "Such a good God" and gave thanks. "We take life and death for granted, but this is a wake-up call," Associate Pastor Recardo Millwood told grieving church members Sunday, according to The Wall Street Journal. "It's serious, serious business. No one knows when your number is going to come up."

Fourteen church members were traveling to a sister church in upstate New York when the van flipped at least three times. Police said the aftermath was horrific.
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Bronx Church Looks to Prayer After Deadly Crash

13 Veterans in one day for Veterans Court in Spokane Washington

This is the way to show support of the troops in a real way!


Special courts in Wash. designed for veterans

By Kevin Graman - The Spokesman-Review
Posted : Monday Sep 20, 2010 8:29:30 EDT

SPOKANE, Wash. — After surviving 15 months in one of the most dangerous places on Earth, Iraq war veteran Carl Jacobson thought he could cope with just about anything civilian life had to throw at him.

Jacobson realized he was wrong the day he learned that his beloved former platoon leader had been gravely wounded by an enemy sniper.

"It broke me down," Jacobson said. "No matter what comes your way, it's crucial to any soldier to avoid losing control. You can't lash out."

Jacobson was arrested in July on a domestic violence charge after breaking the door of the north Spokane apartment he shares with his girlfriend and her two young children.

The former Army sergeant could have been convicted of third-degree malicious mischief last week, but instead he received a "stipulated order of continuance" from Spokane County District Judge Vance Peterson on the first day of Veterans Court.

If Jacobson completes a two-year counseling program under the terms of his continuance, the charge will be dismissed.

He was one of 13 veterans and active-duty soldiers answering misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor charges in Peterson's courtroom on Thursday.

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Special courts in Wash. designed for veterans

Montana National Guard gets support from Austalia

Here are just a few stories covered over the years on the Montana National Guard. This is something the cable news does not cover but is very important in the fight to save their lives. There are over 30 posts on the Montana National Guard's efforts to save the men and women we sent into combat.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Why Montana National Guard is taking PTSD head on


Monday, December 1, 2008

The death of Chris Dana changed Montana National Guard

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Obama win also means PTSD work gets new hero

Yellow ribbon program supports Montana National Guard
By Louisa Barber

Sidney Herald
Published on Sunday, September 19, 2010 7:09 AM MDT
They served this country, and they won’t be forgotten for it. Not through the Montana Yellow Ribbon Program, a year-old program dedicated to assisting the state’s Army National Guard soldiers through deployment.

On tour throughout the state, representatives of the National Guard visited Sidney for a luncheon and meeting in an attempt to reach out to the public to earn its support of its members. “Ultimately, this is the way to see success,” Ryan Luchau, outreach and marketing coordinator, said.

The Montana Yellow Ribbon Program, created in January 2009, is geared to assist service members and families going through deployment or those recently returned from a deployment. The program stemmed from reintegration issues and includes a three-step process. First is the pre-deployment academy in which soldiers and their families go through a workshop to discuss what to expect during and after deployment.

The second phase takes place during deployment. Families left behind are offered support through activities and training for when their loved one returns. It also includes monthly morale checks with returning soldiers and identifying at-risk service members. Being prepared and aware of who families can call to get assistance is a great asset.

The third phase is conducted once the service member returns and includes two steps: the 30-day post-deployment, which is re-establishing connection with family, the employer and the community, and the 60-day post-deployment which focuses on discussing problems, going through anger and stress management as well as suicide prevention.
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Yellow ribbon program supports Montana National Guard

Helping vets stop cycle of crime

Helping vets stop cycle of crime
Monday, September 20, 2010
BY KIBRET MARKOS
The Record
STAFF WRITER

Police in North Jersey now have a new question for those who end up handcuffed in the back of a patrol car: "Are you a war veteran?"

The answer may determine if the offender will be sent to the Veterans Assistance Project, a new program that offers counseling, addiction services and other help to veterans charged with crimes.

More than 350 veterans in 11 counties — including 34 in Bergen and 12 in Passaic — have participated in the program since it was launched in phases starting in December 2008. The state is gradually expanding the program to all counties, following a similar trend nationwide.

Officials point to studies finding that more than 20 percent of war veterans show signs of mental illness, and many of those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are returning home with some form of mental disorder.

The new thinking taking hold in courts nationwide is that veterans should be offered treatment rather than being pushed through a system that was designed primarily to penalize.
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Helping vets stop cycle of crime

A hero of Vietnam finds victory in defeat

A hero of Vietnam finds victory in defeat
By Eugene Patterson, Times Editor Emeritus
In Print: Monday, September 20, 2010
MAYPORT — If one healer can splint the American fracture left by the Vietnam War, a Vietnamese named Harry looked the part in a ceremony over the weekend at this U.S. Navy base.

"We won the war," said the former South Vietnamese army colonel, five times wounded and 13 years imprisoned by North Vietnam. "The Hanoi government knows China is going to attack Vietnam. So it must democratize and unify the country and be friends with America because the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

His name is Tran Ngoc Hue. U.S. Marines nicknamed him Harry nearly a half-century ago. It stuck to this day when he was honored aboard the Navy warship USS Hue City in a memorial of the 1968 Tet battle for Hue.

Harry was a hero there. But he was no victor in the war. As a South Vietnamese, he lost along with his departing American allies. Like Pickett's charge at Gettysburg, though, his transcendent gallantry in a lost cause offered both sides in a polarized America a unifying symbol of their kinship in courage.
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A hero of Vietnam finds victory in defeat

Sunday, September 19, 2010

New Hampshire works with VA to aid vets in jail

New Hampshire works with VA to aid vets in jail

The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Sep 19, 2010 12:35:01 EDT

CONCORD, N.H. — Veterans who are serving time in New Hampshire’s prisons will get more help when they’re released under an agreement reached between the state Department of Corrections and the federal Department of Veterans Affairs.

The agencies recently signed an agreement that calls for the corrections department to notify the VA six months before a veteran is scheduled to be released. VA officials will then meet with the offender and make appropriate referrals for housing, substance abuse, employment, medical and mental health services.

Corrections Commissioner William Wrenn says he is optimistic the arrangement will lead to a more successful re-entry for the offenders.

There are 270 inmates incarcerated in the state prison system who report that they are veterans.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/09/ap-veterans-new-hampshire-works-to-help-vets-in-prison-091910/