Osama lived in mansion and told others to die

We waited almost ten years for this, "an American bullet in bin Laden's head" but as people line up to take credit, including Bush's cabinet members, it is stunning to discover that for 8 years of his presidency, it turns out Osama has been living in the mansion for years and it took Obama two years to do what Bush couldn't get done in 8. We all remember the news interview in 2002 when Bush said he didn't spend much time thinking about Osama. After all, the talk at that point changed to Iraq and Saddam.

Most of the young men and women enlisted because of September 11, 2001 but the exact number of the over 2 million deployed into Afghanistan and Iraq is not known. This is what they wanted and the rest of the country demanded until they just didn't care anymore. When was the last time Osama's name was even mentioned? As more and more Americans decided the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not worth the money anymore, the men and women serving in the military still risked their lives everyday. Now it seems as if every American and most of the world is celebrating an American bullet ending Osama's terror.

Precision mission ends with an American bullet in bin Laden's head
By CHRIS CARROLL
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 2, 2011

WASHINGTON — The plan was to slip in smoothly. Elite Navy SEALs would descend from helicopters and kill or capture the ghostlike figure who had overseen the murder of thousands and haunted the American imagination for a decade.

Instead, the raid began with a bang as a Black Hawk helicopter crash-landed in the courtyard of a fortified compound in Abbottabad, an affluent area outside Islamabad, Pakistan. Here, among retired military officers and near Pakistan’s leading military school, the world’s most wanted man had been hiding in plain sight while the search for him focused on Pakistan’s rough-and-tumble tribal region near Afghanistan.

Bedeviled by helicopter problems, the raid began with echoes of the foiled 1980 mission to free U.S. hostages in Iran, or the brutal Battle of Mogadishu — another Black Hawk down.

But it didn’t play out that way, as some two dozen elite members of fabled SEAL Team Six and CIA operators pulled it together. They continued on with their mission — perhaps the most consequential American military operation in decades — without missing a beat.

Bin Laden had been holed up within an extensive, roughly triangular compound surrounded by walls up to 18 feet high. Inside, it was divided by more walls and dominated by a three-story mansion.

Months of CIA intelligence work based on information from detainees had established first that a trusted emissary of the terrorist leader lived there.
Precision mission ends with an American bullet in bin Laden's head

Osama was a coward, hiding in a mansion, telling poor and frustrated fools that they could become martyrs by blowing themselves up, but in the end, he was not even willing to die and hid behind his wife.

As of today, according to iCasualties there have been 4,452 lives gone paying the price in Iraq and 1,566 in Afghanistan. Naturally we do not factor in all the wounded any more than we factor in all the deaths caused by combat PTSD and suicides because that would just be too much for our imagination and conscience to grasp fully. As we are celebrating the death of Osama, how long will it take to think of the price paid for this to happen? Will the American people now respond to surveys saying it was worth it? What does this end up meaning to the veterans of our wars we stopped paying attention to?

Army Vet: This Is Why I Signed Up (VIDEO)
— By Tim Murphy Mon May. 2, 2011


Ret. Sgt. Evan Cole enlisted the Army when he was a 17-year-old Michigan high school student in 2001. He got out of Walter Reed Naval Hospital three months ago. He has a six-inch scar on his right leg to go with injuries to his hand and his head from his tour in Ramadi. He made up his mind to join the army after the watched the Twin Towers fall in his geography class. Cole was one of thousands of revelers who gathered in front of the White House late last night and stayed well into the early hours of the morning to celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden.

"In the last few years, it seemed like nobody even cared, like what we did over there in Iraq; nobody even talks about it anymore. It is so amazing to see so many people out here wearing red, white, and blue," Cole said. "See, that's what we were over there for—it's these people!"
Army Vet: This Is Why I Signed Up

Will this Memorial Day be sacred to us or will it be just one more long weekend to kick off our summer? Will the media finally admit that when some wiser heads were saying that a full blown occupation was not necessary when this operation was pulled off with the bravery of SEALS and intelligence of CIA agents? Calm determination of President Obama ended this even while he was being attacked over "silly" accusations like his birth certificate. The media fed the frenzy but he was planning to finally being Osama's life to an end.

6 Boy Scouts, 2 troop leaders missing in Arkansas National Forest

UPDATE 9:38

Missing Boy Scout troop found in Arkansas national forest
May 3rd, 2011



A Boy Scout troop from Lafayette, Louisiana, which was missing after a weekend camping trip in an Arkansas national forest, was found safe on Tuesday, officials said.

The campsite of troop No. 162 in the Ouachita National Forest was spotted by a National Guard helicopter, said Jerry Elizandro, spokesman for the Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency.

The scouts were being transferred by helicopter to a command post, said Art Hawkins, scout executive for the Evangeline Area Council of Boy Scouts of America. All the boys are fine, he said. Officials hope to find out what happened from the scout master later, he said.

Hawkins said Monday officials were confident the troop was safe, saying the scout master with the troop was very experienced and serves as a backpacking trainer. The average age of the youths is 14, he said.

Arkansas State Police were prevented from conducting an aerial search on Monday because of the weather, Hawkins said. A lack of cell service in the area was also hampering search efforts, he said.

The area being searched was near the scene of a fatal flood last year. Twenty people died in flash floods during the summer.
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6 Boy Scouts, 2 troop leaders missing in Arkansas National Forest
By Rick Martin, CNN
May 2, 2011 10:08 p.m. EDT

Arkansas authorities are searching the Ouachita National Forest for a missing Boy Scout troop from Louisiana.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Search continues for Louisiana Boy Scout troop
Weather has prevented air search
Location has no mobile phone service

(CNN) -- A Boy Scout troop from Lafayette, Louisiana, is missing after camping this weekend in a national forest in Arkansas.

Arkansas emergency official Tommy Jackson said the search by the Montgomery County Sheriff's office for Troop No. 162 continues in the Ouachita National Forest.

"We're very confident the kids and adults are safe," scout executive Art Hawkins of the Evangeline Area Council of Lafayette said. "The Scout master with them is very experienced and serves as a backpacking trainer. The average age of the youth is 14 and they are the more experienced hikers of his organization."

Arkansas State Police have tried to conduct an aerial search, but due to the weather have not been able to, Hawkins said.

Arkansas authorities describe their search as being near the scene of 2010's fatal camp flood where 20 people died in flash floods during the summer.

"We're dealing with all kinds of floods in the state," Jackson said. There's no cell service in the area and it's hampering search efforts, he said.
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6 Boy Scouts, 2 troop leaders missing

Senators hope to learn more about bin Laden op

Chuck Todd on NBC Nightly News didn't mention the helicopter having to be blown up by the SEALS but congress is looking into what happened to it.

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

This is the report of the helicopter.

Senators hope to learn more about bin Laden op
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday May 2, 2011 16:06:58 EDT
The Senate Armed Services Committee wants more information about the special operations helicopter that was blown up Sunday by U.S. Navy SEALs after suffering some kind of failure during the raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden.

At one point Sunday night, during a briefing with reporters, White House officials said the helicopter had suffered a mechanical failure that led to a forced landing in the Pakistan compound; another chopper was sent to extract the U.S. forces. But, later in the same briefing, White House officials said mechanical failure may not have been to blame.

News photos of the remains of the helicopter appear to show a UH-60 Black Hawk.

The failure of a helicopter during a key part of the military mission was eerily similar to the mechanical failures and crash that resulted in disaster during Desert One, the 1980 incident when U.S. forces attempted to free U.S. hostages being held in Iran. The rescue mission was aborted when three of the five helicopters suffered mechanical problems or did not reach the rendezvous point because of bad weather and malfunctions.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the armed services committee chairman, said during a Monday conference call with reporters that the committee hopes to discover exactly what happened to the helicopter on Tuesday afternoon, when the Obama administration promised to provide a full briefing on details of the operation.

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Senators hope to learn more about bin Laden op

Report from Richard Engle

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Headline spin on soldiers with PTSD again

How did this report end up being another "blame the veteran" piece?

Soldiers with mental illness more often get PTSD

When you read further down you find this.

In the new study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, more than 22,000 soldiers completed a health questionnaire before they were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, and again after they returned.

Just over three percent had some mental illness, including PTSD, at the outset.

When you put the whole thing together, you get not much adding up to this headline.

Soldiers with mental illness more often get PTSD


NEW YORK | Mon May 2, 2011 5:18pm EDT
(Reuters Health) - Preexisting mental health problems could be setting soldiers up for posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, when they return from the battlefield, U.S. Navy researchers said Monday.

They found those with depression, panic disorder or another psychiatric illness were more than twice as likely to develop the condition as their mentally stable peers.

"More vulnerable members of the deployed population might be identified and benefit from interventions targeted to prevent or to ensure early identification and treatment of postdeployment PTSD," Dr. Donald Sandweiss of the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, California, and colleagues write.

Earlier studies have come to different conclusions, but their methods were less reliable than those used in the current one, the researchers add.

Between seven to eight percent of the general population eventually develops PTSD, according to the National Center for PTSD at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The psychological toll -- including flashbacks, "numbing" toward other people, and drug problems -- can be extremely hard to deal with and may destroy relationships or cause trouble on the job.
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Soldiers with mental illness more often get PTSD

Are they saying that 7 to 8 percent of the population are exposed to traumatic events causing PTSD or are there actually more since the going rate of PTSD is one out of three exposed to events that put their lives in danger. Do they address the fact that when you look up the symptoms of PTSD, you find depression, panic attacks along with a very, very long list of symptoms that could be misdiagnosed when taken all together along with the stressor of a traumatic event, it all turns out to be PTSD. They have been misdiagnosing PTSD as something else for a very long time but when you talk to experts they always look for what is behind what they are seeing.

They will ask about when the person started to show signs and then ask about events. They listen for key words from patients as well as families and then zero in on the term "suddenly changed" so they can discover if it is mental illness or PTSD. Much like going to a doctor with any condition cannot be diagnosed without knowing what you feel is wrong with you, they get this one wrong all the time. If you went to a doctor and said you had a headache but they never checked for a bullet hole in your head, aspirin isn't going to do you much good at all.

But this is the Reuters version of the piece in Science Daily.

Post-Deployment PTSD Symptoms More Common in Military Personnel With Prior Mental Health Disorders

At baseline, 739 participants (3.3 percent) had at least one psychiatric disorder, defined as PTSD, depression, panic syndrome or another anxiety syndrome. Of the overall group, 183 individuals (0.8 percent) sustained a physical injury during deployment. Follow-up questionnaires showed that 1,840 participants (8.1 percent of the 22,630 subjects in the study population) had PTSD symptoms after deployment.

Participants who showed signs of PTSD at baseline had nearly five times the odds of developing the disorder after deployment. Similarly, among those who experienced other mental health issues were at baseline, the odds of post-deployment PTSD symptoms was 2.5 times more likely. Further, the study found each three-unit increase in Injury Severity Score (as assigned by the JTTR or CTR EMED) was associated with a 16.1 percent greater odds of having post-deployment PTSD symptoms.

Pre-deployment? Were these men and women deployed prior to this study and how many times were they deployed before this? The Army said that redeployments increased the risk of PTSD by 50%. Experts also say that a lot of times PTSD does not cause problems in some until years after the event itself. So what is this study really all about? Is it about trying to say they have no responsibility to the veterans they discharged under "personality disorders" and they can start doing that again? After all, if they were already mentally ill then the military is not responsible for them if they end up with PTSD. In other words, is this one more attempt at blaming the troops for the price they pay serving and risking their lives?

Cole CO during 2000 attack says crew vindicated

Cole CO during 2000 attack says crew vindicated
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Monday May 2, 2011 13:25:13 EDT
A former commander of the destroyer Cole cheered the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed during a raid on a secret compound in Pakistan early Monday, but said the news was also a sobering reminder of those who lost their lives or were injured during the Oct. 12, 2000, bin Laden-directed attack in Aden, Yemen.

“I’m absolutely thrilled that we finally reached out and got bin Laden,” said retired Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, who commanded the ship at the time of the attack. “But as you would expect, that’s also tempered with the fact that there are still 17 families out there that are missing their loved ones, along with thousands of other Americans who’ve also paid a price at the hands of that guy.”
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Cole CO during 2000 attack says crew vindicated

Osama tried to hide behind his wife?

UPDATE 4:13

May 03, 2011
Obama aide: Bin Laden not armed when killed


By David Jackson, USA TODAY

Osama bin Laden was not armed when a U.S. Navy SEAL shot and killed him during the raid two days ago in Pakistan, a White House spokesman said today, contrary to previous accounts provided by Obama administration officials.

"He was not armed," spokesman Jay Carney said today while reading a revised narrative that corrects other errors from previous readouts of the operation that took the life of the world's most wanted terrorist.

The new account changes the initial claim, later withdrawn, that bin Laden had used a woman believed to be his wife as a "human shield" when confronted by U.S. forces during the raid that began at 4:15 p.m. Sunday, Washington time.

The updated version says "a woman -- bin Laden's wife -- rushed the U.S. assaulter and was shot in the leg but not killed."

"Bin Laden was then shot and killed," the narrative adds at that point. "He was not armed."

At a White House briefing yesterday, counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan said that bin Laden "engaged in a firefight with those that entered the area of the house he was in. And whether or not he got off any rounds, I quite frankly don't know."

Brennan also said bin Laden was "hiding behind women who were put in front of him as a shield."
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Obama aide: Bin Laden not armed when killed

40 minutes to capture or kill: Timeline, history of Osama bin Laden raid
Sunday's dramatic events, with a continuous firefight that ended in Osama bin Laden's death in Pakistan, were preceded by years of intelligence gathering and extensive, painstaking planning.

By James Oliphant, Washington Bureau
4:01 p.m. EDT, May 2, 2011


Reporting from Washington— After landing by helicopter at the Pakistani compound housing Osama bin Laden on Sunday, the U.S. special operations team tasked with capturing or killing the Al Qaeda leader found itself in an almost continuous gun battle.

For the next 40 minutes, the team cleared the two buildings within the fortified compound in Abbottabad, north of Islamabad, trying to reach Bin Laden and his family, who lived on the second and third floors of the largest structure, senior Defense Department and intelligence officials said Monday.

"Throughout most of the 40 minutes, they were engaged in a firefight," said a senior Pentagon official, who characterized the operation as intense but deliberate.

Bin Laden "resisted" and was killed by U.S. gunfire in the larger building toward the end of the operation. He fired on the assault team, a U.S. official said, and may have tried to use his wife as a shield. The woman also was killed.

After the firefight, the special-operations force quickly gathered papers — valuable intelligence on Al Qaeda, officials said — and other materials in the two buildings and clambered back on helicopters, taking Bin Laden's corpse with them.
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40 minutes to capture or kill

Two Korean War vets receive Medal of Honor posthumously

Two Korean War vets receive Medal of Honor posthumously
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest declaration of military valor, to two Korean War veterans on Monday.

Family members of Army Private First Class Anthony Kaho'ohanohano and Private First Class Henry Svehla accepted the awards on the soldiers' behalf over 50 years after their deaths.

Kaho'ohanohano, a native Hawaiian, held off enemy soldiers with his firearm, grenades and eventually his hands on September 1, 1951, allowing his comrades to regroup and repulse the attack.

After his platoon appeared to be losing in a fight on June 12, 1952, Svehla, from New Jersey, charged enemy positions, firing and throwing grenades. Despite being wounded, he carried on. Finally, he threw himself on a grenade to save the lives of fellow soldiers.
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Two Korean War vets receive Medal of Honor posthumously

Deltona FL Master Sgt. Tara R. Brown among dead at Kabul Airport shooting

Deltona airman killed in gunfire near Kabul airport
Master Sgt. Tara R. Brown, 33, died in a hail of gunfire at Kabul International Airport earlier this week.

Compiled by Orlando Sentinel
11:17 p.m. EDT, April 29, 2011

A Deltona airman was among nine Americans killed this week in gunfire at a military compound near Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced Friday.

Master Sgt. Tara R. Brown, 33, and eight other Americans died when a veteran Afghani pilot opened fire about 10 a.m. Wednesday.

An argument with a foreign colleague at a meeting in the operations room of the Afghan air force building preceded the shooting, according to statements released by NATO and Afghan officials. The pilot targeted foreign instructors and advisers, they said.
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Deltona airman killed in gunfire near Kabul airport

Combat Stress as 'Moral Injury' Offends Marines

When will they ever learn? If it was a "moral injury" then why would survivors of other traumatic events suffer? Yes, moral issues do factor into PTSD but when you have so many believing in what they are doing, telling them it is a moral injury is way off base.

Combat Stress as 'Moral Injury' Offends Marines
April 29, 2011
Stars and Stripes|by Megan McCloskey
SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- The new buzzwords in the mental health community for types of combat stress are "moral injury" -- and some Marines don't really care for the label.

On the third day of the Navy and Marine Corps' annual conference on combat and operational stress control, moral injury was the guiding topic. One Marine commander roped into a panel discussion at the last minute bluntly took issue with the phrase: "As a Marine, I'm insulted."

Lt. Col. James "Hall" Bain, commander of 3rd Combat Engineer Battalion, said he thought the term implied that Marines were stressed as a result of immorality.
Combat Stress as 'Moral Injury' Offends Marines

Military PTSD is a whole different type of wound than regular people suffer from. The closest thing to military PTSD is the type that strikes law enforcement. Why? Because of the number of times they are exposed to traumatic events and the fact they are not just survivors, but part of the trauma itself. Some will and do question the moral justification of what they had to do but that is part of just being human. All humans with any kind of a conscience question themselves but not all humans develop PTSD. Trying to box in PTSD with a "moral injury" tells them they suffer because they did something wrong and that's the end of the story. I am not surprised they feel insulted. It is almost as if the speakers did a fraction of the homework they should have done on this before they addressed the Marines.

Plant City Marine killed in Afghanistan on daughter's first birthday

Plant City Marine wanted to be best dad he could be

By Dan Sullivan, Times Staff Writer

Freeman died in Afghanistan on Thursday on his daughter Kaitlyn Michelle’s first birthday.

Ronald "Dougie" Freeman wanted to be the best.

Those who knew him already knew him as the best student, the best worker, the best brother. But he needed to prove it to himself. To do that, he had to become a Marine.

"He could have had anything he wanted," said his father, Brian Freeman. "But he wanted to go into the Marines."

On Thursday, Lance Cpl. Freeman of Plant City was killed in Afghanistan. He was 26.

A Department of Defense statement said he died while conducting combat operations for Operation Enduring Freedom in Helmand Province.

A minesweeper, Lance Cpl. Freeman got off a truck to search an area when one exploded, killing him, according to his family.

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Plant City Marine wanted to be best dad he could be

Kentucky National Guard returns home

Troops return home after being deployed in Afghanistan for nearly a year

By Marisela Burgos

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - More than 60 troops who were deployed for nearly a year in Afghanistan returned home.

The Kentucky National Guard's Agribusiness Development Team 2 had been in Afghanistan since July 2010. A welcome home ceremony was held, Sunday, at the Kentucky Air National Guard Base on Grade Lane in Louisville.

Major General Edward Tonini said the team taught the people of Afghanistan farming, while they were deployed. He said they taught basic techniques. He said it was an important mission.

"It's a country that has known nothing but war for literally hundreds of years and what we're doing is providing them with the elements of being able to sustain themselves," Tonini said.
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Troops return home after being deployed in Afghanistan

Osama bin Laid by Seals and CIA!

Inside the raid that killed bin Laden

SEALs, working with CIA , stormed fortified compound deep inside Pakistan
By Matt Apuzzo - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday May 1, 2011 23:37:59 EDT
WASHINGTON — Helicopters descended out of darkness on the most important counterterrorism mission in U.S. history. It was an operation so secret, only a select few U.S. officials knew what was about to happen.

The location was a fortified compound in an affluent Pakistani town two hours outside Islamabad. The target was Osama bin Laden.

Intelligence officials discovered the compound in August while monitoring an al-Qaida courier.

The CIA had been hunting that courier for years, ever since detainees told interrogators that the courier was so trusted by bin Laden that he might very well be living with the al-Qaida leader.

Nestled in an affluent neighborhood, the compound was surrounded by walls as high as 18 feet, topped with barbed wire. Two security gates guarded the only way in. A third-floor terrace was shielded by a seven-foot privacy wall. No phone lines or Internet cables ran to the property. The residents burned their garbage rather than put it out for collection. Intelligence officials believed the million-dollar compound was built five years ago to protect a major terrorist figure. The question was, who?

The CIA asked itself again and again who might be living behind those walls. Each time, they concluded it was almost certainly bin Laden.
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Jubilation across the U.S.
Soldiers from Lewis-McChord celebrate the news
Troops react to bin Laden’s death
By Colin Kelly - Staff writer
Posted : Monday May 2, 2011 0:48:33 EDT
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — The mood on a U.S. base in the war zone was celebratory early Monday.

For one soldier, in his first day in the theater, it was a historic day.

Army Maj. Erik S. Archer said he heard the news from the soldier who he’s replacing.

“My guy that I’m RIPing in with knocked on my door said, ‘Hey, you gotta come see this, the president is announcing that they got bin Laden,’ and I didn’t believe him at first,” Archer said.

“This is my fourth time overseas, and I went and saw the president and … it was just goose bumps to see all the people outside the White House clapping and cheering. It’s a national moment, I think.”

Troops watching the announcement were mesmerized, Archer said.
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New Yorkers React To Osama Bin Laden Death (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
New Yorkers are responding to the news that Osama bin Laden is dead.

Shortly after the announcement from President Obama, New Yorkers in Times Square and Ground Zero flooded the streets to celebrate the news that the man behind the attacks of September 11th was killed by American forces.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg released a statement on the news, saying that “New Yorkers have waited nearly ten years for this news. It is my hope that it will bring some closure and comfort to all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001.”

New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly greeted the news as a "welcome milestone" for the victims of those horrific attacks, and for those "who remain tenaciously engaged in protecting New York from another attack."

Senator Charles Schumer said that the death of bin Laden is a "thunderous strike for justice for the thousands of my fellow New Yorkers -- and citizens from all over the world -- who were murdered on 9/11."

HuffPost's Rob Fishman was downtown near ground zero Sunday, and filed this report:
read more here
New Yorkers React To Osama Bin Laden Death

Buried at sea

Clinton: Bin Laden death shows 'You cannot defeat us'
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 2, 2011 10:20 a.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Terrorists will almost certainly attempt to avenge the death, Panetta says
DNA matching is under way, a U.S. official says
Intelligence work on a courier for bin Laden led to a key break
Hundreds celebrate in front of the White House and in New York

(CNN) -- The successful U.S. operation that killed Osama bin Laden sends a message to the Taliban in Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday.

"You cannot wait us out. You cannot defeat us. But you can make the choice to abandon al Qaeda" and participate in a peaceful political process, Clinton said.

"There is no better rebuke to al Qaeda and its heinous ideology," she said. "The fight continues and we will never waver."

Some doubted that the terrorist leader would ever be caught, she said, but "this is America... We persevere, and we get the job done."

Clinton also noted that bin Laden's death comes at a time of "great movements toward freedom and democracy."

The operation that killed the founder and leader of al Qaeda was designed to do just that, not to take him alive, a U.S. government official told CNN Monday.

DNA matching is under way on samples from his body, the official said. There are photographs of the body with a gunshot wound to the side of the head that shows an individual who is not unrecognizable as bin Laden, the official said.

No decision has yet been made on whether to release the photographs and if so, when and how.
The mastermind of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- the worst terrorist attacks on American soil -- was killed by U.S. forces Monday in a mansion in Abbottabad, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, U.S. officials said.

Four others in the compound also were killed. One of them was bin Laden's adult son, and another was a woman being used as a shield by a male combatant, the officials said.

Bin Laden's body was later buried at sea, an official said. Many Muslims adhere to the belief that bodies should be buried within one day.
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Bin Laden death shows 'You cannot defeat us'

Body of Alabama major killed in airport attack returned from Afghanistan

Body of Alabama major killed in airport attack returned from Afghanistan
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: May 01, 2011
GADSDEN, Ala. — A 41-year-old Gadsden native training pilots in Afghanistan was among nine people who died after an Afghan military pilot opened fire during a meeting at the Kabul airport.

The flag-draped coffin of Air Force Maj. Jeffrey Ausborn was flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Saturday. Plans for a memorial service have not yet been announced.

His wife, Suzanna, said he volunteered to go to Afghanistan last year to teach new Afghan pilots how to fly the C-27 aircraft. He was a 19-year veteran of the Air Force.

"He was the most compassionate, kind, patient and understanding husband, father, pilot and supervisor," she told The Gadsden Times.

She said the two talked nearly every day. "That's how is knew something was wrong. I didn't hear from him. I miss him so much," she said.
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Alabama major killed in airport attack


DOD identifies 8 killed in Kabul

Ross Perot to be guest speaker at Veterans Reunion

Saturday May 7, 2011 at 10:30am,
Prior to the massing of the colors, Ross Perot will be the guest speaker.

go here for more information

Florida Veterans Reunion

Reserve deputy chief talks up new Florida center

Reserve deputy chief talks up new Fla. center
By Don Ruane - The (Fort Myers, Fla.) News-Press
Posted : Sunday May 1, 2011

CAPE CORAL, Fla. — An Army Reserve training center to be built in north Cape Coral is a $14.5 million investment that will create 20 to 30 jobs and help local businesses, the deputy chief of the national Army Reserve said Saturday after a tour of the city.

Maj. Gen. Keith L. Thurgood toured the 15-acre training center site on Corbett Road at Diplomat Parkway while in town to address the gathering of the Florida Reserve Officers Association at The Resort at Marina Village.

The construction contract for the center is going out for bids in September. Completion is expected in 2013. The site is on Corbett Road at Diplomat Parkway. A $132-million, four-story Veterans Affairs Clinic is going up just across Corbett Road and is expected to open in 2012. The Reserve wants to look for ways to collaborate with the clinic, Thurgood said.

He said he also is impressed with the city’s efforts to spur more development in the area, which is called the Veterans Investment Zone. The zone is a one-mile circle around the clinic where special incentives are available from the city to entice developers.

Some 300 reservists will pass through the center each year, but they will stay in local hotels at the end of each day, dine at local restaurants and visit local attractions, Thurgood said. The training center also will need the services of local landscapers, plumbers, electricians and others.

“Our soldiers are involved in communities all the time,” Thurgood said at a news conference after inspecting the rehabilitation work on the Iwo Jima flag-raising statue at Four Mile Cove Eco Preserve.

There are 11,000 Army reservists in Florida and they have an annual economic impact of $200 million, Thurgood said.
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Reserve deputy chief talks up new Fla. center

Nevada’s mental health courts are in serious jeopardy

Nevada’s mental health courts are in serious jeopardy

You can tell Clark County’s mental health court sessions on Thursday afternoons are informal because the judge stands behind a lectern in street clothes, and there isn’t a phalanx of high-priced attorneys to be found.

But dealing with adult criminal offenders who suffer from bipolar disorders or schizophrenia is still serious business. During last week’s hourlong session, District Judge Jackie Glass reviewed 28 cases in rapid succession. Among them were jail detainees in restraints seeking admission to the court’s mental health care program and others who live in transitional housing or with relatives who updated the judge on their progress with drug treatment and community service.

One young man skipped a therapy session at church, claiming he was sick and fell asleep, but he was admonished by Glass: “We don’t think you’re invested in your treatment and we have concerns about that.” He was led away in handcuffs, ordered to spend 24 hours in jail.

Another offender appeared before the judge and admitted he wasn’t taking his medication, including insulin. So Glass donned her overcoat, telling him she was wearing a judge’s robe, and said: “If I order you to take your medication, will you take it?” He nodded affirmatively and returned to his seat.

Mental health court has kept mentally ill individuals out of jails and emergency rooms after committing crimes ranging from petty larceny to assault, but it could vanish July 1. That’s because Gov. Brian Sandoval’s call for shared sacrifice to help solve the state’s budget deficit would kill Clark County’s mental health court and others in Washoe and Carson City counties, judges and mental health advocates say.

They argue that Sandoval’s proposal to make the counties, rather than the state, fund mental health courts won’t work because the counties are strapped for money.

Among those leading the outcry is Glass, who helped start Clark County’s mental health court in 2003 after it received seed money through a federal grant. Since the court was established 107 participants have graduated from the program.

“It’s a shame that the governor didn’t put that funding in the budget,” Glass said. “The individuals who would be helped will have a very difficult time receiving treatment.”
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Nevada’s mental health courts are in serious jeopardy

The Hidden Risks of PTSD for Our Nation's Veterans

The Mindful Self-Express
The mind-body experiment
by Melanie Greenberg, Ph.D.
Why Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is Not a Mental Health Problem
The Hidden Risks of PTSD for Our Nation's Veterans
Published on May 1, 2011 by Melanie A. Greenberg, Ph.D. in The Mindful Self-Express

Recent scientific studies show that Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is not a mental health problem. Am I saying this to be controversial and get more readers? The answer is "yes." Do I actually believe this statement? The answer is "yes" again. "But how can you say such a thing?" you ask. "Doesn't the DSMIV-TR, the major diagnostic manual of the American Psychiatric Association, include diagnostic criteria for PTSD." "It sure does," I answer. "The individual must experience a threat to life or physical integrity and his reaction at the time of the event must include fear, helplessness, or horror. In addition, she needs to report symptoms such as nightmares, avoidance or emotional numbing, and chronic anxiety." "Well then?" you ask. And, finally taking pity on you, I say "PTSD is not a mental health issue, it is a mind-body problem. Focusing only on the mental health aspects does a disservice to our nation's veterans because it ignores the links between PTSD and a variety of life-threatening and/or costly medical problems, many of which require preventive intervention."
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The Hidden Risks of PTSD for Our Nation's Veterans

Plant City Marine killed in action 'wanted to be the best'

Plant City Marine killed in action 'wanted to be the best'

By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune
Published: April 30, 2011

TAMPA --
Ronald "Dougie" Freeman was an A student at Plant City High School, where he also took part in the ROTC program.

After graduating, he performed so well as a machinist that the company didn't want him to leave, his father said. When he did, he was told he could have his job back when he returned.

Freeman left to join the military. Always striving to be the best, he chose the Marine Corps, said his father, Douglas Freeman.

First, he had to slim down.

In high school, Freeman weighed 300 pounds. But he worked out, running up to eight miles a day to get down to the acceptable 200 pounds or so for his 6-foot-plus frame.

"It'd be raining, he'd still run," recalled his uncle, Bobby Freeman.

In Dougie Freeman's refrigerator, there was only grilled chicken and tuna.

He signed on in 2008.

On Thursday, just three weeks after arriving in Afghanistan for the first time – and nine days after the birth of the son he would never see – Freeman was killed by an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Helmand province. He was 25.

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Plant City Marine killed in action

Veteran Wendy Torrey's death shocks family, friends and fellow veterans

Wendy Torrey didn't find what she was looking for trying to heal from what she had been through. She tried to find it. She had been in a treatment program before she walked into a shooting range and pulled the trigger against her own body. Torrey, by all accounts, not only want to heal herself, she wanted others to heal too. So what was missing from her "treatment" and what is it that they are still not doing when veterans like her do everything experts tell them they need to do but still end up so hopeless they don't want to live another day with the pain they are in? We have plenty of excuses when they just decide they don't want help, choose to drink or do drugs instead of fighting to heal or turn down help from others instead of embracing all the help they can get, but when they do all the can to heal but still take their own lives, we better start looking at what they are given in the form of help and fix what we're getting wrong.

Woman’s death shocks family, friends, fellow vets
Barb Ickes
Posted: Sunday, May 1, 2011

When Wendy Torrey followed her boyfriend to Bettendorf five years ago, she threw herself into what mattered to her: other veterans.

At 33 years old, Torrey had served in Bosnia with the Army, had lost her husband to an SUV rollover accident and was single-handedly raising the couple’s son, Trevor.

She found her way to VFW Post 9128 in Bettendorf shortly after moving to the Quad-Cities and served for two years as the post’s chaplain. She enrolled in Western Illinois University and earned a bachelor’s degree in business management.

She helped other veterans while volunteering for about six months as an intern for U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa. She also found work with the Veterans Administration hospital system in Iowa City.

But Torrey needed help, too.

“She served in the Bosnia campaign,” said Scott County Veterans Affairs Director David Woods. “We knew she had PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and she was being treated for it.”

In fact, Torrey had recently completed a treatment program at the Battle Creek Veterans Affairs Medical Center when she went to a shooting range April 20 in Taylor, Mich.

After renting a handgun and shooting targets for an unspecified amount of time, Torrey took her own life.

“We’re just dumfounded, because we didn’t see it coming,” said her father, John Torrey of Corpus Christi, Texas. “She didn’t tell us much about Bosnia. Veterans hide those things from people they care about.”

According to her obituary, Torrey enlisted in the Army in 1997, which is where she met her husband, Jeremy. She served with the military police in Bosnia.

“Her platoon asked her to man their M-60 machine gun, and she walked point on foot patrols, seeing things young women are not supposed to see,” her obit read.

Word of her suicide reached Bettendorf last week.
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Woman’s death shocks family, friends, fellow vets

Original report
Female Army Vet, released from PTSD program, committed suicide at shooting range

This is where the healing begins

I'm going to start off with a bit of honesty you won't hear from many. It will anger a lot of members of the clergy, some I know personally, but you don't have to go to church. Christ is an example of that because He prayed wherever He was. He prayed on a hill. He prayed in a garden. God heard Him no matter where He was.

Acts 17 Paul in Athens

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

I spent my entire life attending church. Most of the priests I encountered were as good as they come, but a few reminded me they were also as human as they come. Some were filled with ego but more were filled with light. Just because they enter into ministry, they do not escape being human on this planet trying to do the best they can but as humans, they make a lot of mistakes. They can say the wrong thing. They can give a bad example of what Christ's love is to the point where you leave the church after their sermon feeling worse than you did before you walked in the door. If you feel as if you wasted time sitting in the pew, know you did not waste time reaching out for God. If you left the church because you had someone up at the pulpit you had a problem with, God didn't leave you because of that. The truth is, He never left you. You can always find Him no matter where you are. This is one of the reasons why I wanted to become a Chaplain. I take care of people where they are with whatever they need because that is what Christ did for me. He took a total "screw up" and changed my life just as He had done for others over the last couple of thousand years.


No matter what I've done in my life, I'm forgiven.


When we talk about what is gnawing at our soul it accomplishes a couple of things. First the weight is lifted off our souls. Once the words come out, we no longer feel like a monster because we finally understand a monster wouldn't care or be willing to face whatever reaction may come from the person we confess to. The shame we feel inside is defeated with the words leaving our mouths and our burden is lifted. Then we remember there is nothing we cannot be forgiven for. Christ forgave the hands that nailed Him to the cross. There is nothing He cannot forgive you for doing to someone else. He died to take your burdens on Himself. If you think that He's shocked by anything wrong you did, He saw you when you did it. He knew what was in your heart, what happened before in your life, just as He knows what will come tomorrow if you allow Him to lead the way.


When you are forgiven, know that this day is the new beginning you've heard about, then the healing begins.


You are still just one more human on the planet trying to do the best you can with your life. That's the place you need to start with other than being in the military or a veteran long after the boots came off.

If we believe we are evil, then we feel we are evil. God knows better because He created the soul within you and knew you before you were born. He had plans for you.

Jeremiah 29
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity.

If as a member of the military you've forgotten what caused you to be where you were in the first place, God didn't forget. He knew you were willing to die for the sake of others.

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

There was no evil intent within you to begin with. It was based on what God put within you. The thing that called your soul to be able to set everyone else before yourself. The courage to do it, the will to endue whatever price you had to pay for the sake of others. Some did it for country but all did it for their brothers and sisters. Unique individuals joined together for a greater good having to enter into the hell of war, seeing things and doing things less than 10 percent of the population of this nation will ever know. Your intent was good even though you had to walk thru what evil had begun.

You leave there and wonder as the changes within you begin to haunt your thoughts. Have you become evil? Had God abandoned you? How could you not wonder? When you see what humans are capable of doing to others, you wonder how a loving God could allow so much pain, suffering and horrible things to happen. When you were there, you didn't notice God was there in the midst of all of it because you were there. Every moment of compassion you felt, He was there. Every tear you shed, He was there. Every act you did for the sake of someone else, He was there. When you walked through the darkness of war, He was there waiting for you to help you find peace again.

In the memories of darkness, if you look, you will see moments of miracles when His love was there, when what you had to do was just what you had to do and not who you were inside. Your intent was good and He wants you to remember that but as a human the bad things you had to do stand out more in your mind. Let the good within your soul raise above what your mind sees.

There needs to be another term used to describe what you are going through other than Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when it comes after combat. Every human that survives traumatic events is changed. One out of three are drastically changed after one event but you have lived through many. You not only survived those times, you were part of the events themselves. The cuts to your soul are deeper with each bomb that exploded, with each bullet fired and there is a lot to overcome for you. These are not things average humans are supposed to go through but these are things your soul was prepared for. Just as the calling of your soul was to serve, the healing power is also within you. You just need to be able to find it so that you can come out on the other side of this darkness and live in the love of God knowing you are forgiven for what you had to do.

When you think you are evil, then the love you felt becomes trapped behind a wall of pain feeding the pain trapping out the love from others. You begin to think that you don't deserve to be loved by anyone so you push them away at the time you need them in your life the most. If you know God has forgiven you, then you need to forgive yourself for whatever wrong you feel you've done. When Christ told us to forgive others, it was not for their sake, but for our own. When we carry that within us, it eats away at all the good we should be feeling. When we cannot forgive ourselves, it is a burden no one is forced to endure but we do it to ourselves. You can forgive yourself, you can forgive others, because He forgave you first and that is where the healing begins.


There are many members of the clergy getting involved in helping you heal because they are finally understanding that this wound you carry attacked you with just as much force as a bullet. It needs to come out of you. It causes you pain. For as long as it remains within you, it reacts like an infection taking over more and more of who you are. With a bullet, you see a doctor to remove it. With this, you need to see people able to help you heal the whole you. Your mind, your body and your soul. The soul is where the pain is so avoiding this part of your healing prevents it from being true healing of your life. As I wrote in the beginning, you don't have to go to church to do this.

You can do it where you are and lay down all the burdens in your soul. You don't have to know the "proper" words to use but just believe He is listening. Don't put it off or feel as if you have to be properly dressed. Do it in whatever you have on.

You can contact a group to help you soul heal. Point Man Ministries is there to help you find the love God had for you before the day you were born.

There are two videos on the side bar of this blog with a Staff Sgt. talking about this and his own dark days when he put the barrel of a gun into his mouth but was saved to live on and share God's love.

If you are a member of a church, then read the following and make sure the clergy in your own church get involved in helping other veterans heal this wound they carry within them.




While the percentage of suicides and attempted suicides is wrong in this article, the reporter got the rest right. Most of the time they are given the numbers and it is not their fault if they report something wrong. Reading they have 70,000 with PTSD in the Pikes region of Colorado should be a sledgehammer to anyone thinking the war is over when they come home.

Faith community addressing PTSD issues
Posted: Apr 30, 2011 6:00 PM by Matt Stafford
Updated: Apr 30, 2011 8:15 PM
Even with all of the resources of the military, taking care of all of the soldiers coming home with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a big task. Local experts say we have 70,000 active duty or retired military suffering from P.T.S.D. in the Pikes Peak region.

"Talking about the divorce rate among soldiers being at least twice the national average. Everyday five, either active duty or retired, soldiers are trying to commit suicide, so the need is tremendous," says Mike Chapman, who works with the Military Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ on Fort Carson.

In Colorado Springs, local experts only see problems with P.T.S.D. growing; and the issues extend past the post.

"The fact that 70 percent of soldiers and families who attend church, or other faith groups, do so off-post means it is a community issue," says Chapman.

Local faith leaders are taking charge; 20 to 30 churches and others spent all day talking about ways to help at Woodmen Valley Chapel.

"I served for 20 years, and now I find myself in a church setting where our church is very interested in reaching out to the same military community that we're part of in Colorado Springs." says Jeff Kozyra, a conference attendee who works for New Life Church.

Hernando Pena has a clear view of what they're up against; after two deployments from Fort Carson, his stress came out in the form of anger and alcohol use.

"This has been a three year stinch that we're talking about as far as suffering through Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder," says Pena, a veteran of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. "It almost broke us apart."
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Faith community addressing PTSD issues

Bible verses from Bible Gateway