Vietnam Veteran Remembers "A Few Good Angels"

Death called more than a dozen times, but this soldier didn’t answer
WPRI 12 News
By Walt Buteau
Published: October 21, 2016

“I was 19 years old. I don’t believe a ring or a set of rosary beads are going to save my life. But my life was saved at least 12 times in Vietnam and twice at Camp Lejeune.” Michael Montigny

COVENTRY, R.I. (WPRI) — Even the author of “A Few Good Angels” didn’t initially believe the luck connected to how he survived more than a dozen brushes with death.

As the Vietnam War was erupting in 1966, Michael Montigny was a teenager in West Warwick, into baseball and hot rods.

But he would soon be in a Marine boot camp, face to face with a gunnery sergeant who let him know how dangerous it was to be the trigger behind a machine gun.

“He was right in my face,” Montigny recalled. “He says life expectancy of a machine gunner is 15 minutes, and I couldn’t swallow. I said, Oh my god.”

Before he found out just how accurate the sergeant was, Montigny was picked out of a crowd of Marines heading into Vietnam by a Marine who was going home.

“He fights his way through 200 of us, comes up to me and takes the ring off his finger,” Montigny said. “He puts it right in my face and says here. This brought me luck and protected me. It’s going to protect you.”
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Survivors of Beirut Bombing Remember Marines Lost

33 years after Beirut bombing, a survivor remembers
WNCT News 9
By Elizabeth Tew
Published: October 21, 2016

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (WNCT) – The 33rd anniversary of the 1983 Beirut bomb blast is this weekend and in Camp Lejeune it’s a date that hits close to home. Many of the bombing victims were deployed from Lejeune, including retired Marine Dan Joy, who survived the harrowing experience.

“We were sent to Lebanon as peacekeepers to assist the United Nations forces,” Joy said. “We became enemy combatants because different factions thought we were taking sides.”

Joy was a member of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. Early on October 23, 1983, the battalion’s headquarters building was bombed.

“They built car bombs and drove one into our headquarters,” Joy said. “There was rubble and remains of our Marines and soldiers. Marines were just lifting concrete and using crow bars and trying to get to the voices.”

On Sunday, an observance will be held here at the Beirut Memorial in Jacksonville to those men.
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Neighborhood Parade Welcomes Home Army Surgeon

Md. family welcomes hero dad home from Afghanistan with neighborhood parade
FOX 5 News
Anjali Hemphill
October 21, 2016

BETHESDA, Md. - A Maryland hero was welcomed home from deployment in Afghanistan in style Friday night-- by his entire neighborhood. Army Lieutenant Col. Benjamin Potter, an orthopedic surgeon from Bethesda, has spent the last four months caring for injured service members and Afghan allies.

Lt. Col. Potter had a block party waiting for him to help him celebrate his return—and of course, a very happy family. The neighborhood scooter brigade parade is actually a tradition for the Potter family, one that pumps up the whole neighborhood.
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National Guard Soldiers Forced to Repay Bonus Money?

Thousands of California soldiers forced to repay enlistment bonuses a decade after going to war
Washington Post
David S. Cloud
October 22, 2016

They’ll get their money, but I want those years back.

— Susan Haley, former Army master sergeant

Soldiers from the California Army National Guard have been ordered to return enlistment bonuses they received a decade ago when the Pentagon needed troops for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (California Army National Guard)

Short of troops to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan a decade ago, the California National Guard enticed thousands of soldiers with bonuses of $15,000 or more to reenlist and go to war.

Now the Pentagon is demanding the money back.

Nearly 10,000 soldiers, many of whom served multiple combat tours, have been ordered to repay large enlistment bonuses — and slapped with interest charges, wage garnishments and tax liens if they refuse — after audits revealed widespread overpayments by the California Guard at the height of the wars last decade.

Investigations have determined that lack of oversight allowed for widespread fraud and mismanagement by California Guard officials under pressure to meet enlistment targets.

The National Guard Bureau, the Pentagon agency that oversees state Guard organizations, has acknowledged that bonus overpayments occurred in every state at the height of the two wars.
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Flesh Eating Bacteria Took Three Limbs But Not Marine's Spirit

Veteran who lost 3 limbs to flesh-eating bacteria trains to become Crossfit warrior
Associated Press
BY LISA MARIE PANE
October 19, 2016

“I’m here for my kids, my husband and I want them to see I can still do things with them.”

DACULA, GA. A year ago, Cindy Martinez was struggling to walk even just a few feet and lift just five pounds.

A flesh-eating bacteria had ravaged the 35-year-old Marine veteran’s body. She had a grim choice: Amputate both legs, an arm below the elbow, and parts of the fingers on her remaining arm – or face almost-certain death.

The amputations saved her life. And after months of hospitalizations and rehabilitation, she finally found herself back home but alone during the day while her young children were in school and her husband was off at work.

“It kind of takes a toll on you mentally, just sitting there after all that I had gone through,” she said.

In the stillness of her home, she fired off an email to a local gym and asked about joining. When they called back later that night, “I told the lady on the phone, ‘well, there’s a twist to my story.’ ”

She soon found herself sitting in a circle surrounded by trainers at Crossfit Goat – with the motto Be Your Greatest of All Time – in Dacula, about 45 miles northeast of Atlanta. She told them her story and began in February to embark on an unusual quest: becoming a Crossfit athlete. Crossfit gyms are known for high-intensity strength and cardio workout, and their members often consider their “box” to be like a family as they bond over workouts-of-the-day that test their strength and resolve.
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Vietnam Veteran Determined to Give His All to Prevent Suicides

'Give my all': A veteran's struggle and his fight against all military suicide
STARS AND STRIPES
By NIKKI WENTLING
Published: October 21, 2016

“I’ve been homeless; I’ve been hungry; I’ve used drugs. I’m surprised I’m even still here,” Towery said. “It’s all part of the makeup of who I am as a person now, and I’m the kind of person who doesn’t cut and run when a responsibility is there.”

Navy veteran Glenn Towery, 64, served in the Vietnam War from 1971 to 1972 on the USS Rupertus before he was medically evacuated. Towery has faced homelessness and drug use, and he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 2008. He recently started a nonprofit in an attempt to prevent servicemember and veteran suicide. Courtesy of Glenn Towery

A crumpled-up brown paper bag has a permanent place at the bottom of Glenn Towery’s briefcase.

It’s a reminder of a difficult but “remarkable” odyssey, Towery said, that started after his return from the Vietnam War in 1972.

Towery, feeling dizzy, sought help at a Department of Veterans Affairs emergency room in 1975, and a doctor handed him a paper bag to breathe into.

“He said, ‘Mr. Towery, are you aware that you have been hyperventilating?’” Towery, now 64, told Stars and Stripes in a recent interview. “I started understanding. That was the first indication that something was wrong.”

In the decades since, he became homeless and worked his way off the streets. Developed a crack cocaine addiction and walked away from it. Tried and failed at college, but tried again and earned a degree.

With help, Towery has worked through a series of hardships, including disability and bouts of PTSD. Now, he’s trying to assist veterans who are considering suicide — something he knows firsthand.


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Vietnam Veteran Searching for Owner of Hard Drive from Iraq

A military mystery found on a hard drive in Lynnwood
Q13 FOx
BY JAMIE TOMPKINS
OCTOBER 19, 2016

LYNNWOOD, Wash. — It’s about 400 megabytes of a soldier’s memories captured on a hard drive.

George Williams says a friend found the beat-up hard drive and traded it to him for a few cigarettes.

“There were pictures of them in camp, pictures of the war, pictures of some cities around there and there were also family pictures. I don’t know if it’s fate. Maybe it was because if it was in somebody else’s hands, they would have wiped everything out and forgotten it,” says Williams.
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Fort Campbell Soldier Killed in Tennessee

Sheriff: Disoriented soldier killed in Tennessee after walking into road
WKRN
Published: October 19, 2016

PLEASANT VIEW, Tenn. (WKRN) – A young soldier based out of Fort Campbell was killed after he was hit on a Pleasant View highway early Saturday morning.

Investigators say the accident happened around 4 a.m. when Austin McGrough walked into the middle of Highway 41A and was hit by a BMW driven by an 18-year-old girl.

Cheatham County Detective Jeff Landis said the young driver had no way to avoid the collision.

According to Det. Landis, McGrough had been snorting Percocet and drinking grain alcohol after having his wisdom teeth removed a few days prior.

He and four other soldiers reportedly left Fort Campbell on Friday and were staying at a home on Highway 41A.
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US Navy Jet Turned Pink?

Pretty in pink: Navy fighter jet painted for Breast Cancer Awareness month
CNN
By Doug Criss and Thom Patterson
October 18, 2016

(CNN)The fight against breast cancer picked up a powerful new ally -- a retired US Navy fighter jet. And of course, it's pink.

A Grumman F9F-8 Cougar, painted a vivid shade of pink called "Heliconia," has been unveiled on the flight deck of the World War II aircraft carrier USS Lexington, anchored at Corpus Christi, Texas.

In support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Cougar will be on the deck through October 31.
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Peterson Air Force Base Released Contaminated Water

U.S. Air Force: Toxic chemicals released into Colorado city's sewer system
CBS News
October 19, 2016

The Air Force said the tainted water was released from a storage tank sometime in the past week, but the cause of the leak was still under investigation. It was discovered during a routine inspection of the tank on Oct. 12.

DENVER -- An Air Force base in Colorado said Tuesday it accidentally released about 150,000 gallons of water containing toxic chemicals into the sewer system of the adjacent city of Colorado Springs, but the potential health hazards weren’t immediately known.

Peterson Air Force Base said the water contained perfluorinated compounds or PFCs, which have been linked to prostate, kidney and testicular cancer, along with other illnesses. The Air Force hasn’t said how high the levels were.

The chemicals didn’t get into the city’s drinking water, said Steve Berry, a spokesman for Colorado Springs Utilities.

CBS Colorado Springs affiliate KKTV reports that releasing the water isn’t an easy task.
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