Agent involved in Army officer's murder case charged with lying about earning a Purple Heart
The Washington Post
By DAN LAMOTHE
Published: February 14, 2019
The charges, if proved, amount to what U.S. troops refer to as “stolen valor,” when service members claim details about their military service that are not true in ways that benefit them. Delacruz has been suspended from his duties since the allegations came to light late last year, Castro said.
A special agent with U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command faces criminal charges after allegedly lying about his military service, Army officials said Thursday, complicating a case he was assigned in which a former Green Beret officer has been charged with murder.
Matthew L. Golsteyn, a former Special Forces officer who is being investigated for alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan, in his Washington office with his wife, Julie, and their 4-month-old son Henry. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)
Army Sgt. 1st Class Mark Delacruz, who is assigned to the Army CID office at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was charged with the unauthorized wear of a Purple Heart, Air Assault Badge, Pathfinder Badge and Combat Action Badge and is accused of submitting a package to an Army promotion board that stated he earned a Purple Heart when he did not, said Jeffrey Castro, an Army spokesman. The Purple Heart is awarded to U.S. service members who have been wounded or killed in combat.
The charges, if proven, amount to what U.S. troops refer to as "stolen valor," when service members claim details about their military service that are not true in ways that benefit them. Delacruz has been suspended from his duties since the allegations came to light in late 2018, Castro said.
The accusations, first reported by NBC News on Thursday, complicate the case of Army Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, who is accused of premeditated murder in connection with the death of a man in Afghanistan in 2010. Golsteyn, 38, was charged in December following an on-and-off investigation that dates back to 2011, when the former Green Beret officer acknowledged killing an unarmed man that he believed to be a Taliban bomb maker during a job interview with the CIA.
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UPDATE: Sun Prairie police say missing veteran has been ‘safely located’
WKOW 27 News
February 15, 2019
UPDATE (WKOW) — The Sun Prairie Police Department has canceled a Green Alert for a missing veteran who they thought may be endangered.
According to an alert sent at 5:30 a.m. Friday, Shawn Jacob has been safely located.
SUN PRAIRIE (WKOW) — The Sun Prairie Police Department has issued a Green Alert looking for information to locate a missing veteran who may be endangered.
Shawn Jacob was last seen Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 13, 2019 in Sun Prairie.
Jacob may be in the Madison, Milwaukee or Lake Wisconsin area, according to a Wisconsin Department of Justice news release.
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Commandos to Counselors: A response to the special operations forces mental health crisis
Military Times
By: John Hollis
February 14, 2019
This is a fight and the creeds that we live by dictate that we never go into a fight unprepared. As with any mission, we need to train, organize, and prepare in order to succeed. Interventions are already being undertaken on an informal basis through social networks of SOF veterans.
There is a growing mental health crisis among members of the U.S. Special Operations Forces community that is not being adequately addressed.
On Feb. 2, 2019, CNN reported that suicides among those currently serving with U.S. Special Operations Command tripled last year. Although data specific to SOCOM veterans is not currently available, a recent study by the VA found that, between 2005 and 2015, veteran suicides increased 25.9 percent.
While the precise scope of the problem among SOF veterans remains unclear, anyone with access to forums like the closed social media groups that serve as an ad hoc support system for the community can see that the situation is getting worse. The most effective solution to this national crisis requires the direct involvement of SOF veterans trained to provide mental health services to their comrades.
After leaving active duty and transitioning back to civilian life, many SOF veterans struggle with serious mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress and depression. In the context of this difficult transition from the battlefield to the home front, a mindset that fosters success in the world of special operations can become a double-edged sword. Fighting through injuries and ignoring pain to complete the mission may be what is required in the short term, but insistence on our own invincibility over the long term can prove fatal.
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Something like this is very much needed. When you look back at the way it was years ago, it is obvious that even after all the publicity PTSD had gained over the years, the end result is, more have lost their lives to suicide.
This is about attempted suicides, yet one more thing that does not get discussed enough. It is not from the VA but from the National Institute of Health.
During 1993-1998, 10,163 veterans were treated and discharged at a VA medical center after a suicide attempt (mean age = 44 years; 91% male).
That was reported in 2011.
The DOD has been doing their own reporting on attempted suicides too. This report is from 2016.
Incidence of Attempted Suicide
Over the course of CY 2016, 1,263 non-fatal suicide attempts were identified. The associated
DoDSER reports provided data on suicide attempts for 1,218 unique individuals. A total 1,182
had a single suicide-attempt reported; 36 had two or more suicide attempts reported, dating back
to 2010. The median number of days between the most recent suicide attempt and the
penultimate attempt was 82 days.
And this is part of the report from CNN about Special Forces Suicides.
Washington (CNN)Suicides among active duty military personnel assigned to US Special Operations Command tripled in 2018, in a disturbing and as yet unexplained spike, CNN has learned.
Special Operations units saw 22 deaths by suicide in 2018, almost triple the eight cases seen in 2017, according to figures provided to CNN by the command.
SOCOM, as it's known, is the unified combatant command charged with overseeing the various Special Operations component of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force that take on counterterrorism and other specialized missions.
Based in Tampa, Florida, the command includes some of the military's most highly trained and effective fighting forces, including the Army's Delta Force and the Navy's SEAL Team Six.
While sudden spikes in suicide rates have been noted in both the military and civilian populations, military officials who spoke to CNN said what has happened at SOCOM is striking. The surge in SOCOM suicides comes as the Marine Corps and Navy are experiencing 10-year highs in the number of suicide deaths.
The good thing is that a lot more people are not willing to wait for our government to do something about all of this.
Much like we knew more than they know now, we learned the hard way in the 80's and I learned from people who were doing this in the 70's.
So why is no one listening to any of us? Do they think PTSD has changed?
The FBI wants help identifying the women in a confessed serial killer's hand drawn portraits of his victims
CNN
By Madeline Holcombe
February 13, 2019
(CNN)The FBI is hoping portraits of women drawn by the man who says he killed them will help them to identify the victims and notify their families.
The agency released 16 images on Tuesday, drawn from memory by Samuel Little, who told authorities they are just some of the more than 90 people he killed over three decades.
"We are hoping that someone -- family member, former neighbor, friend -- might recognize the victim and provide that crucial clue in helping authorities make an identification," said FBI spokesperson Shayne Buchwald. "We want to give these women their names back and their family some long awaited answers. It's the least we can do."
The strategy has worked before, Buchwald said. Women who appeared in two previously released portraits were identified, he said.
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Vietnam War veteran gets special visit from West Point cadets
Palm Beach Post
By Jodie Wagner
Posted Feb 13, 2019
Pembrook, who was a three-time NCAA tournament qualifier while at West Point and remains the only golfer to be inducted into the academy’s Sports Hall of Fame, was overjoyed to be able to spend some time with the cadets.
Members of the West Point golf team stopped by the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center on Tuesday to visit with Army veteran and West Point alum Stephen Pembrook, who is recovering from a stroke.
WEST PALM BEACH — At their final stop on a five-day swing through Palm Beach County, the United States Military Academy golf team brought a little Valentine’s Week cheer to an ailing Vietnam War veteran.
Stephen Pembrook, an All-American golfer and former team captain at West Point in the 1960s, has spent the past two months at the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center’s Community Living Center, where he is recovering from a stroke.
In an effort to cheer him up during National Salute to Veteran Patients Week, Pembrook’s wife, Mary, and his close friend, George MacClary, arranged for the West Point golfers to stop by.
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Make sure you watch the video!
Forrest Gump Star Gary Sinise Opens Up About Raising $30 Million Annually for Veterans
PEOPLE
KARA WARNER
February 13, 2019
"Service is a great healer," says Gary Sinise of his four decades of service work for military veterans and first responders.
Although Gary Sinise didn’t initially set out for a career in service, after four decades of making a difference for military veterans and first responders, he’s exactly where he’s supposed to be.
Sinise, 63, who reflects on his journey from “self to service” in his new book Grateful American, details the major turning points in his life, which include learning the details of his family connections to the military, playing Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump and feeling “broken” after the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
“I’ve found that service is the best way to heal,” he tells PEOPLE in the latest issue. Sinise’s foundation The Gary Sinise Foundation now raises now raises $30 million annually – 90% of which goes toward the organization’s programs, like building specially adapted smart homes for severely disabled vets and bringing military families to Disney World.
“If every person in every neighborhood around the country took a little bit of responsibility for patting these folks on the back, all the problems that we hear about with regards to veterans not getting services or falling through the cracks would disappear,” he says. “If citizens would look at their freedom providers in a little bit different way.”
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Double amputee veteran chases truck driving dream
WKRN
By: Adam Snider
Posted: Feb 14, 2019 12:07
CHRISTIANA, Tenn. (WKRN) - A dream decades in the making was nearly taken away from a local veteran.
"There's dark days out there. Depression, I've had to fight through them. But man, lately I've kind of forgotten about them." Erin Schaefer
Outside of Christiana though, for the last several weeks, he's worked to achieve this goal.
"My dad was a trucker so that's all I've known," said Erin Schaefer, an Army veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. "I just love the open road, being out there with the truck. Just myself and my thoughts."
Those thoughts sometimes take him back to the Army and his final term in Afghanistan.
It was on this trip in 2010, that he was in the wrong truck at the wrong time.
"Was out on a convoy taking supplies from one base to the next. Came to a halt because the other truck in the rear of our convoy had become disabled," he explained. "Started moving again, and the IED blast went off."
Erin is now an amputee, losing both his legs below the knee.
"There's dark days out there," he said. "Depression, I've had to fight through them. But man, lately I've kind of forgotten about them."
He's found new life, thanks in part to an old passion.
Erin is now seeking his CDL, at the Truck Driver Institute (TDI) outside Christiana.
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Mental health evacuations in the forces
AirMed and Rescue
Wed, 02/06/2019
Military mental health
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) have addressed figures released under the Freedom of Information Act which highlight that one in 10 military personnel evacuations are due to mental health problems.
Over the last year, 121 servicemen and women operating abroad were flown back to the UK as a result of mental health conditions, which include depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and stress. Second only to limb injuries, more people were evacuated for mental health problems than limb disorders, heart problems or spinal injuries.
Personnel evacuated were flown back to the UK to receive medical treatment and had the option to either return to operations abroad or stay in the UK following their treatment. However, figures released omit some instances, such as those where mental health issues were dealt with without the patient returning to the UK, and those of patients travelling on a commercial airline.
Figures taken between October 2017 and September 2018 show that those most likely to be evacuated over mental health are Army personnel, with 69 evacuations throughout the period. The Royal Navy are second most likely, with 35 evacuations, and the Royal Air Force (RAF) had 17 evacuations in the period described. Indeed, the proportion of mental health-related evacuations almost doubled: from 6.3 per cent between 2003 and 2010 to 12.4 per cent between 2017 and 2018. These figures come after a MoD statistical report found in January 2019 that Army personnel were at the highest risk of all three forces of deliberate self-harm during service.
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Families living with military housing horrors plea for reforms
STARS AND STRIPES
By CLAUDIA GRISALES
Published: February 13, 2019
Several witnesses and lawmakers agreed Wednesday that the residential horror stories can be traced back to the 1996 military housing privatization initiative that let contractors take over management of the residences. Previously, the military managed these properties.
Military spouse Janna Driver testifies Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2019, during a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, as fellow military spouses Crystal Cornwall, left, and Jana Wanner look on. CARLOS BONGIOANNI/STARS AND STRIPES
WASHINGTON — Termites falling from light fixtures. Toxic mold sickening families. Rodent infestations of residences. Asbestos and lead paint exposures.
This is the alarming world of dilapidated military housing today.
On Wednesday, some families who have suffered with these residential nightmares told their stories on Capitol Hill.
“Our military families do not deserve this after all the sacrifices they make,” Janna Driver, the wife of an active-duty Air Force servicemember and mother of five children, told lawmakers during an extensive Senate hearing on military housing problems. “It is criminal. It is unbelievable the extent of this cover up.”
Driver joined two other military spouses during the more than three-hour hearing to plead for help as they detailed years of battles with deteriorating housing conditions, subsequent illnesses and extensive bills.
Private military housing executives and top military officials also testified before the joint subpanel hearing for the Senate Armed Services Committee. They said they are now addressing the concerns.
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A Marine Raider was awarded a Silver Star for taking out an armored-vehicle IED with a Javelin
Marine Corps Times
Shawn Snow
February 12, 2019
A Marine Raider and sniper with 2nd Marine Raider Battalion has been awarded the nation’s third highest award for combat bravery for his heroic actions during the outset of the campaign to liberate Mosul, Iraq, from ISIS fighters, according to military officials.
A U.S. Marine fires an FGM-148 Javelin, a shoulder-fired anti-tank missile near At Tanf Garrison, Syria, Sept. 7, 2018. (Cpl. Carlos Lopez/Marine Corps)
The elite Marine commando with Marine Forces Special Operations Command, or MARSOC, is the only Marine thus far to be awarded the Silver Star for actions against ISIS militants in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, according to Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs.
Marine Corps Times agreed to withhold the name of the Marine out of operational security concerns as he is still operating with MARSOC.
On Oct. 20, 2016, the Marine Raider was a staff sergeant serving as an assistant element leader with 2nd Marine Raider Battalion as his unit assisted other forces in an operation to isolate Mosul for its future liberation.
During the day, his team was hit with sustained enemy fire and the unit decided to occupy a point between two enemy controlled villages, according to details in his award citation obtained by Marine Corps Times.
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