Soldier set to retire...after Vietnam?

From Vietnam to Afghanistan: A U.S. veteran's four decades of duty
UPI
By Susan McFarland
April 23, 2018

"Whenever our nation was in conflict, I just couldn't sit around and not be a part of defending it," U.S. Army and Navy veteran Victor T. Wright said.

After a career span of more than 40 years in the military, Sgt. 1st Class Victor T. Wright, 61, will soon retire. He may be the only recipient of a Vietnam Service Medal who is still active in the military. Photo courtesy Victor Wright/UPI

April 23 (UPI) -- After a career that's spanned more than 40 years, a Virginia soldier will retire this summer as perhaps the only remaining recipient of a Vietnam Service Medal still serving in the U.S. military.

U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Victor T. Wright entered the military in 1974 at age 17 as a way to "see the world" and get an education. Now 61, he will retire Aug. 31 after a career that included stints in both the Army and Navy, five enlistments and six deployments. His final post, as a senior aviation maintenance instructor in the Army's 128th Aviation Brigade, is at Fort Eustis, Va.

Wright has served a role in virtually every major conflict of his lifetime -- Vietnam, Gulf Wars I and II and Kosovo -- and tours in the Pacific theater, Indian Ocean, Kenya and Korea.

In fact, he may be the sole remaining active duty Vietnam veteran, according to military officials.
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Afghanistan Veteran makes history with this transplant

Injured veteran gets first complete penis and scrotum transplant
NBC News
by Maggie Fox
Apr.23.2018

“When I first woke up, I felt finally more normal… a level of confidence as well. Confidence… like finally I’m okay now.”

A veteran badly injured by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan is recovering from the first-ever transplant of a penis and scrotum, doctors said Monday.

Doctors perform a penis transplant on an injured Afghanistan veteran at Johns Hopkins University.Johns Hopkins Medicine

The soldier lost both legs above the knee, his penis and the area around it when the IED — improvised explosive device — blasted him.

But thanks to a donor and a team of transplant specialists who have been rehearsing for five years, the patient should recover near complete function of his penis, the doctors said.

According to a 2017 report in the Journal of Urology, more than 1,300 male veterans had suffered genital injuries sustained during action from 2001 to 2013 in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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How did Robbie West really die?

Family claims murder as they seek to reopen Fort Benning soldier suicide case
WRBL News
By: Mikhaela Singleton
Updated: Apr 21, 2018

"There was a lack of blood splatter, there was the weapon that was laid in his lap and it was up under a fold of his belly, which how can you shoot yourself in the head, lean over to the right, then the gun fall perfectly under the flap of your belly?" Deanne asks.

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) - Nearly seven years after losing her son, Christopher Robert "Robbie" West's mother says getting his case attention again is bittersweet.

Robbie West was a U.S. Army Sergeant who passed July 17, 2011. The Phenix City Police Department and Army CID ruled his death a suicide and closed the case, but Deanne Miller remains convinced otherwise. That's why she tells News 3 she contacted the Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen to further investigate her son's death.

"It's something of course you don't want to be on TV for, but it's because of the situation and because there's nothing we can change about what happened it's amazing that they contacted us," Deanne says.

Once producers with the show responded to Deanne's request, she and her family's lawyer Thomas Worthy shared the evidence they believe prove Robbie's death was actually a murder.
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Hero stopped gunman at Waffle House

CAPTURED

Shortly after 1 p.m., police announced Reinking had been arrested in a wooded area near Mountain Springs Drive — less than one mile from the scene of the shooting and close to Cane Ridge Elementary.

A tip from a construction worker led police to Reinking, officials said. Detectives from the department's narcotics unit swarmed the area.

Nude gunman kills four at Waffle House restaurant near Nashville
AOL
Thomson Reuters
Apr 22nd 2018

"The shots had stopped so he decided to rush the gunman, actually wrestled that assault rifle away, tossed it over the counter and, at that point, the gunman fled," said police spokesman Don Aaron.
Shaw's fast actions were credited with saving lives, but in an interview with the Tennessean newspaper he dismissed the idea that he was hero.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 22 (Reuters) - A nearly nude gunman killed at least four people at a Waffle House restaurant near Nashville, Tennessee early on Sunday and then fled after a patron saved lives by wrestling the assault-style rifle from his hands.

The suspected shooter, identified by authorities as Travis Reinking, 29, was still at large and murder warrants were being issued for him, the Metropolitan Nashville Police said.

Reinking, of Morton, Illinois was believed to live near the restaurant. The gunman's vehicle was registered to him and a shirtless man wearing pants believed to be Reinking was spotted in woods nearby, police said.

The gunman, who was naked but for a green jacket, first shot and killed two people in the parking lot of the restaurant in Antioch, a section of southeast Nashville, shortly before 3:30 a.m. (0830 GMT).
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Do you know what came home with you?

Then They Appear
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
April 22, 2018

Yesterday we went out to the Veterans Reunion at Wickham Park in Melbourne Florida. It is the 31st time veterans gathered together for several reasons.

For some, it was to spend time with other veterans but for most, it was a journey to remember those they still spend time with, but only in their memories and dreams.

For far too many, when veterans reach retirement age, it all comes back. Things they thought the had gotten over, let them know loud and clear that the sound of the helicopters have not faded. The smell of diesel fuel has not faded. The feel of their weapons has not been removed from their hands.  

They carried PTSD inside of them all along but because they got too busy, too tired at the end of the day, they just didn't notice that the objects in their rear view mirror were a lot closer than they seemed to be.

It is time for your generation to make a U Turn from the left lane and start taking the right road.

The left lane is the lane for those who are heading into those who have left us! Why leave us now after all these years? Why surrender to the thing you have kept one step ahead of all this time?

Now that you have time, why not spend it on taking back your life from PTSD instead of trying to figure out how you want to leave now?

Your generation are the ones who taught the rest of the country what PTSD was and because you pushed for all the research, you basically taught all others how to heal. So how is it that too many in your generation did not get the radio call?

Your generation taught the rest of us how to honor those who risked their lives for everyone else. How about you teach the younger generation that having PTSD makes you a survivor and there is no shame in beating combat the first time. You gave it all you had to live during combat. How about you do all you can to survive old age?

Come on! For the generation who mapped the road, how is you guys keep taking the long way home to healing PTSD?
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Last Patrol Vietnam Memorial Wall Wickham Park