Journalist wounded in Afghanistan in stable condition

CBS news reports that their reporter in Afghanistan, Cami McCormick, who was wounded in an improvised bomb explosion that killed a U.S. soldier last Friday, is in stable condition at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

She arrived there about 2 a.m. Wednesday after being stabilized and evacuated to several U.S. military medical units in Afghanistan, then airlifted to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

McCormick was traveling with U.S. Army soldiers when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device, IED. A soldier in the same vehicle, Spc. Abraham S. Wheeler III, 22, of Columbia, S.C., was killed in the attack.wounded.

McCormick reportedly suffered multiple fractures to her arms and legs but had no head injuries.
She has been with CBS since 1998 and was at Ground Zero in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, in New Orleans when Hurrican Katrina hit, and in the Persian Gulf for the start of the Iraq war in 2003.

Military history: The American flag's baptism by fire

Tradition and some circumstantial evidence indicates the stars and stripes were first unfurled in battle on Sept. 3, 1777, in a skirmish at Cooch's Bridge, Delaware, the only battle of the revolution fought on Delaware soil.

The Colonial general, William Maxwell, ordered the colors unfurled as his force of 700 light infantry and cavalry, including 100 sharpshooters, prepared to meet a force of British and Hessian soldiers. The engagement actually began about Aug. 30 with skirmishes a few miles south of the bridge.

Patriot forces fought well, using Native American tactics, but ran low on ammunition. That forced a retreat to Pennsylvania to meet up with Gen. George Washington at Brandywine Creek, where he was preparing to meet British Gen. Howe's army. Eash side lost about 30 killed and wounded.

Washington's force of 11,000 eventually met Howe's force of 18,000 at Brandywine two weeks later, which ended in defeat and as Washington was outmaneuvered and American forces fled. The British, exhausted, failed to pursue and the Continental army was able to regroup.

But the flag, which had been designed by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777, was here to stay, replacing the Grand Union flag carried by Continental forces in 1776.

There's a marker at Cooch's Bridge today. I've driven by it while visiting family in the East.

While a historians' debate continues over whether the flag was first raised there, the Cooch family continues to hold reunions at their ancestral home and favor tradition, continuing to fly a 13-star "Betsy Ross" flag at Cooch's Bridge for nearly a century.

June 14, of course, later was designated Flag Day by Congress, a national day of observance to commemorate the birth of the nation's symbol.

But Sept. 3 was the day Old Glory first was raised above the heads of American fighting troops.

Of other important military historical note this week, Sept. 2 marks the end of WW II with the signing of unconditional surrender documents by Japanese leaders on the USS Missouri in 1945.

And another big turning point in history occurred Sept. 2, 31 B.C. in the naval Battle of Actium during the Roman Civil Wars. Naval forces of Octavian led by Marcus Agrippa destroyed the fleet of Mark Antony and Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide a year later. Their defeat helped Octavian emerge as ruler of Rome, ending the Roman republic and beginning the Roman Empire.

Four Fort Lewis soldiiers killed in Afghanistan

Four soldiers from Fort Lewis's 5th Stryker Brigade were killed Tuesday by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, the Defense Department said Friday.

Killed Tuesday were Pfc. Dennis M. Williams, 24, of Federal Way; Capt. John L. Hallett III, 30, of Concord, Calif; Capt. Cory J. Jenkins, 30, of Arizona; and Sgt. 1st Class Ronald W. Sawyer, 38, of Trenton, Mo.

KOMO television, the Seattle ABC affiliate, says Williams family told them he was concerned about a lack of ammunition and equipment to fight the war, echoing problems voiced by troops early in the Iraq war.

"What he was told and what he heard is that ammo was low, conserve your stuff, and he just didn't feel that they were equipped like they should have been - like it was a low-budget war," Dennis' brother, David Williams, was quoted by KOMO as saying.

Williams, a Federal High School graduate from the Seattle area, enlisted in 2007 and was on his first deployment.

Jenkins, a Brigham Young University graduate, was a physician assistant, Sawyer a medic. Hallett was a West Point graduate.

The four served with the brigade's 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment.

Fort Lewis's Stryker brigades, considered the most technologically advanced ground forces in the Army, have now suffered six casualties since arriving in Afghanistan in July. It is a key elemenet in the fight against Taliban strongholds in Kandahar and Zabul provinces.

The News Tribune of Tacoma says the deaths push the number of Washington service members killed since 2001 in Iraq and Afghanistan to 323.

VA simplifying PTSD compensation process

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki on Monday said the VA is moving to help veterans seeking compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder by simplifying the process.

Shinseki, a retired general and highly regarded Army chief of staff in the 1990s who oversaw Army "transformation" to 21st century warfare through the creation of Fort Lewis's Stryker brigades, was appointed by President Obama to do the same for the VA.

“The hidden wounds of war are being addressed vigorously and comprehensively by this administration as we move VA forward in its transformation to the 21st century,” Shinseki said in a press release Monday.

The VA published a proposed regulation in the Federal Register make it easier for veterans to claim service connection for PTSD by reducing the amount of evidence required if the stressors in the claim are related to a fear of military or terrorist hostilities.

Public comment regarding the proposed rule will be taken over the next 60 days, with a final regulation to be published once all comments are considered.

According to the VA news release, under the new rule, the VA would not require corroboration of a stressor related to fear of hostile military or terrorist activity if a VA psychiatrist or psychologist confirms that the stressful experience recalled by a veteran adequately supports a diagnosis of PTSD and the veteran's symptoms are related to the claimed stressor.

Previously, claims adjudicators were required to corroborate that a noncombat veteran actually experienced a stressor related to hostile military activity. This rule would simplify the development that is required for these cases, officials explained.

According to mental health experts, PTSD is a recognized anxiety disorder that can follow seeing or experiencing an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury to which a person responds with intense fear, helplessness or horror, and is not uncommon in war. Feelings of fear, confusion or anger often subside, officials noted, but if the feelings don't go away or get worse, a veteran may have PTSD.

The VA has been beefing up its mental health service for combat veterans, adding thousands of new professionals in the last four years.

The department also has established a toll-free suicide prevention helpline -- 1-800-273-TALK -- and has a Web site available for online chat in the evenings.

At the Pentagon, meanwhile, Army vice chief of staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli last month announced the launch of the largest study of behavioral health ever undertaken by the Army.

Chiarelli, originally from Seattle, is actively spearheading the study that will be conducted by a dream team from the military, National Institute of Mental Health, academia and other members in hopes of better understanding the underlying causes of suicide.

I found out about Chiarelli's sincere passion for soldiers' welfare when I profiled him while I was working for the now defunct Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper in March 2008. At the time he was Defense Secretary Robert Gates' senior military advisor.

Chiarelli in a Pentagon news release said the $50 million study will examine behavioral health, psychological resilience, suicide risk, suicide-related behaviors and suicide deaths across the active and reserve components over all phases of a soldier’s career.

Findings will be presented quarterly with preliminary results due in November.

Chiarelli said the findings could be incorporated in real time into treatment programs. The Army had a record number of suicides in 2007 with 115, and again in 2008 with 139.

“[The study group] realizes this is not business as usual. We’re not going to wait for the final results of the study,” the general said, referring to the project’s five-year timeline.

“We feel that this could be huge -- huge for the Army, the Department of Defense and quite frankly, for America.”

The general predicted that an early recommendation will be to relieve stress on the force by increasing the amount of time troops spend at home relative to the length of time deployed. Chiarelli said deployment stress has shown to manifest itself in high-risk behaviors in soldiers.

“Unfortunately, in a growing segment of the Army’s population, we’ve seen increased stress and anxiety manifest itself through high-risk behaviors, including acts of violence, excess use of alcohol, drug abuse and reckless driving,” he said.

Chiarelli, a Seattle University and University of Washington graduate who maintains connections here, knows the stresses of war, having commanded every unit from platoon to corps level. Chiarelli, who grew up in Magnolia's neighborhood and entered the Army during the Vietnam war after completing ROTC at the UW, served two tours in Iraq.

He first commanded the famed 1st Cavalry Division and later Multi-National Forces-Iraq.

Now a four-star and second in command overall of the Army, Chiarelli is determined to get to the bottom of military suicides and prevent them.

"It rips your heart out," Chiarelli told a group of soldiers in June while on a week-long tour of Army installations to look for clues, a Pentagon news report said.

A deadly week for local soldiers in Afghanistan

Two Fort Lewis soldiers with the first U.S. Stryker brigade to serve in Afghanistan died last Tuesday in a roadside bomb explosion, the Pentagon said Sunday.

Their deaths bring to three the number of local soldiers killed in Afghanistan last week.

Pfc. Jonathan C. Yanney of Litchfield, Minn., and Spc. Troy Orion Tom of Beclabito, N.M., a member of the Navajo nation, are the first members of the post's 3,900 member 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division to be killed in Afghanistan.

Both soldiers were on their first deployments and died in a roadside bomb attack near Arghandab in Kandahar province, which has seen violence escalate in the runup to elections in Afghanistan.

The 5th, which is Fort Lewis's newest Stryker brigade, deployed to southern Afghanistan in June to battle the Taliban.

Tom, 21, a three year Army veteran, was an infantryman. He is survived by his parents, David and Carolyn Tom, two brothers and a sister of Beclabit, where his father is a delegate to the Navajo Tribal Council, the Daily Times of Farmington, N.M., reported.

"Students really thought highly of him," Paul reportedly said. "He had a great sense of humor, a great smile and he was trusted by his friends. He was a very intelligent guy, and he had passion."

Yanney, meanwhile, was 20 years old and a fire support specialist.

In a message posted on MySpace, Russ Yanney, who identified himself as Jonathan's father, said:

"His unit was en route to assist another unit under fire, and his vehicle struck an (improvised explosive device). He was my first-born son. I loved him very much and he will be greatly missed. His smile and desire to help and learn will always be remembered."

In his own MySpace page that he last used on July 31, Yanney cited his heroes as his father and grandfather. He said of himself simply that he was an honest and hardworking guy but was nervous when first meeting people though he could open up afterwards.

"I'm pretty active, so I don't like just sitting around doing nothing," he wrote on his MySpace page.

The two Fort Lewis soldiers were killed the same day as First Sgt. Jose 1st Sgt. Jose San Nicholas Crisostomo, a Spanaway resident and Vietnam veteran, at age 59 became the oldest member of the U.S. armed forces to die in Afghanistan.

It was the first time that three or more members of the armed forces from Washington's military bases or hometowns died on the same day since Nov. 18,2007, when three members of the 4th Stryker Brigade from Fort Lewis died in Baqouba, Iraq.

Crisostomo, originally from Guam but a leader in South Sound's Chamorro community, reentered the Army in 2008 after being away since retiring after a 24 year career in 1994. Crisostomo already had served tours of duty in Vietnam and the 1991 Gulf War, and received two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. The husband and father of three left behind 10 grandchildren. The senior NCO did not serve with a Fort Lewis unit but with International Security Assistance Force Kabul.

Spanaway soldier is oldest to die in Afghanistan war

For the second time in three months, war has claimed the life of a U.S. soldier who served in Vietnam and was old enough to carry an AARP card.

This one was close to home, a senior NCO from Spanaway, First Sgt. Jose "Joe" San Nicolas Crisostomo, 59, who on Tuesday became the oldest member of the U.S. armed forces to perish in Afghanistan.

After retiring with 24 years of service in the Army in 1993, Crisostomo voluntarily returned to help out the Army in April 2008, deploying to Kabul two months later, the Pacific Daily News of Guam reported.

Crisostomo, a leader of South Seattle's Chamorro community from Guam, was a Vietnam war veteran, 1991 Gulf War veteran, and received two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart during his previous 24 years of service.

A husband, father of three and grandfather of 10, Crisostomo would have turned 60 on Aug. 29th.

The News Tribune of Tacoma has a story that the Seattle Times picked up that says dozens of people, many from South Sound's Chamorro community of which Crisostomo was a leader, have gathered daily at his home since then to support his wife, Patricia, and his family and to participate in a nine day rosary. The paper said Crisostomo was also nicknamed Sinbad.

Julian Leon Guerrero Mendiola, a fellow veteran who helped found Grupun Minagof, a community group of Chamorro families in the Pacific Northwest, said Cristosomo was most often called "Joe."

"He was one hell of a guy. He was very family-oriented. And he went above and beyond himself to help other people," the Pacific Daily News quoted Mendiola as saying.

Crisostomo died when a roadside bomb tore through the armored Humvee in which he was riding outside of Kabul on Tuesday. The Defense Department said Crisostomo served with International Security Assistance Force Kabul, but did not specify a unit within it or from what U.S. Army post he was based.

In May, Maj. Steven Hutchison of Scottsdale, Ariz., another Vietnam veteran, was killed in Iraq, become the oldest member of the U.S. armed forces killed in either war.

Hutchison wanted to reenlist after 9/11 but his wife was against it, his brother told the Associated press.

After Hutchison's wife died "a part of him died and he rejoined the Army in July 2007 at age 59, his brother, Richard, told the AP in May.

Hutchison served in Afghanistan for a year before deploying to Iraq last October to lead a team of a dozen soldiers training the Iraq military.

Hutchison, who taught psychology at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles in the 1990s, served with the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division based at Fort Riley, Kan.

Calley apologizes for My Lai massacre

William Calley, the former Army lieutenant convicted on 22 counts of murder in the infamous My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, publicly apologized for the first time this week while speaking before a civic group in in Georgia.

“There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai,” Calley told members of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus on Wednesday, according to the Columbus Ga. Ledger-Enquirer.

The report said Calley's voice began to break when he added, “I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.”

You can read the original story that the wires picked up in the Ledger-Enquirer.

In March 1968, American soldiers gunned down hundreds of civilians in My Lai, a Vietnames hamlet. At first the Army denied the event, then downplayed it, claiming the dead were mostly Vietnam.

In November 1969 journalist Seymour Hersch uncovered what happened. Calley was court-martialed and convicted of murder.

Until Wednesday, Calley had refused to grant interviews about what happened until Wednesday when he spoke at the Columbus Kiwanis meeting. He made a brief statement then took questions from the audience. Calley answered questions regarding his original orders, the question of a helicopter and only two U.S. casualties -- neither the result of enemy fire.

"They didn't have time," Calley reportedly said.

Army chow: SOS recipe

The web site allrecipes.com has a version of an army chow tradition -- SOS -- that got a four-star out of five rating.

You all ought to know SOS stands for what beef in gravy covering a shingle of toast looks like.

This version of the classic Army chow used ground beef. When I grew up an Army brat, my dad and mom sometimes fed us creamed chipped beef on toast.

One allrecipes.com reader spiced up their SOS by suggesting more Worcestershire sauce, a chopped yellow onion, Knorr beef bullion mix and ground garlic.

In today's world I'll bet there's a vegan tofu version somewhere.

Any more variations out there?

Army to require mental health training for all soldiers

Benedict Carey of the New York Times on Monday reported:

"The Army plans to require that all 1.1 million of its soldiers take intensive training in emotional resiliency, military officials say.

"The training, the first of its kind in the military, is meant to improve performance in combat and head off the mental health problems, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide, that plague about one-fifth of troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Active-duty soldiers, reservists and members of the National Guard will receive the training, which will also be available to their family members and to civilian employees.

Read more here.

Local peace activists allege Army spied on them

Back in February 2006, my former Seattle Post-Intelligencer colleague Paul Shukovsky and I wrote about authorities keeping tabs on local non-violent peace activists in Seattle in the name of homeland security.

Now the New York Times reports, in an item picked up by the Seattle Times, that the Army has opened in an inquiry into an accusation from antiwar groups that a Fort Lewis employee, identified by the post as an intelligence analyst, spent more than two years infiltrating peace groups under a false name.

The story by New York Times reporter William Yardley quotes Stephen Dycus, an expert on national security issues at Vermont Law School.

According to the Times, Dycus said the Army was prohibited from conducting law enforcement among civilians except in very rare circumstances, none of which immediately appeared to be relevant to the Fort Lewis case. Dycus said several statutes and rules also prohibited the Army from conducting covert surveillance of civilian groups for intelligence purposes.

"Infiltration is a really big deal," he said. He said it "raises fundamental questions about the role of the military in American society."

Back in 2006, the story Shukovsky and I reported was based upon public disclosure requests of FBI files that local authorities and the FBI looked for signs of civil disobedience in activists preparing to protest Navy ships at Seafair. And caught in the glare of the public eye were groups like in their vigilance had checked out groups like the Raging Grannies, known for their musical satire, and Quakers, known for non-violence.

As often happens with well-intentioned laws and policies, they evolve and get stretched over time.

Personally, I think we ought to drop "homeland" as a term for the bureaucracy. It has a Third Reich or Soviet ring to it with all the attendant stigmas. Why not "civil security" or something more American, federal folks? "Civil Defense" was good enough for out grandparents and the rest of us who had to conduct those duck and cover drills during the Cold War.

While I'm on a rant, also get rid of "warrior." Who dreamt it up? I take the lead from my late dad on this one, a career Army soldier and at one time at age 22 the youngest master sergeant in the Army.

He served during the occupation of Germany and through the Korean and Vietnam wars and worked in a distinguished intelligence unit. I remember a couple of years ago he was grumbling about the references to "warrior this' and 'warrior that.'"

"Warriors," he scoffed, "sounds like a bunch of spearchuckers. After WW II, in Germany the proudest thing you could hear was 'soldat Amerkaner' -- American soldier," my dad said. "That's what I was, what I am. American soldier."

Two dead in apparent Fort Lewis murder-suicide

The Armed Forces Press Service and The News Tribune say a 59-year-old retired soldier who shot a civilian vendor to death at the post exchange Wednesday has died.

The shooting occurred in the corridor area of the main post exchange at Fort Lewis at about 11:20 a.m. Wednesday when the post shopping center was jammed for the lunch hour. At least five shots reportedly were fired, sparking panic as shoppers and lunchgoers scrambled for cover.

The woman, a civilian vendor who worked at a kiosk in the corridor but was not an exchange employee, was pronounced dead after being rushed to Madigan Army Medical Center.

The News Tribune identified her as Sharlona White. Rose Braggs, White's mother, told the newspaper that she learned through news reports that her daughter, who was in her 30s, had died after being shot about 11:30 a.m. while working at her kiosk at the PX.

According to the News Tribune, Braggs in a telephone interview said “He killed my baby. My baby’s gone.”

Braggs told the News Tribune she believed the man who shot her daughter was a former boyfriend who White had left seven months ago.

“She didn’t want him,” Braggs told the reporter. “She was trying hard to get away from him. He just wouldn’t give her up.”

Braggs told the paper the ex-boyfriend had ­threatened her daughter before and had told her he was going to kill himself.

“We called the police and everything,” she was quoted as saying. “We kept on saying (to her) get a restraining order.”

Braggs said her daughter, a Foss High School graduate, worked “all the time, seven days a week” to support herself and her two children, ages 10 and 14, the paper reported.

“She was a wonderful person,” Braggs said.

The man, who retired from the Army in 1952, died at Madigan about 4 p.m. from a gunshot wound to the head.

Preliminary indications are that the man shot the woman and then turned the gun on himself, officials said.

The FBI is investigating with Fort Lewis law enforcement and the Army's Criminal Investigation Command participating.

The victim’s identities were withheld pending notification of their families.

Fort Lewis military police secured the scene, and people in the area were evacuated, post officials said. Loaded firearms are not allowed to be brought onto the post, Maj. Mike Garcia told the Seattle Times.

The News Tribune interviewed two who were there, Kathy Johnson and her mother, Kazui Miller, who were shopping on opposite sides of the PX when the shooting started.

According to the Tribune's story:

“Everyone ran in every direction,” said Johnson, a 44-year-old Tacoma native who now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. “Everyone was yelling, ‘Call 9-1-1!’ ”

Johnson dived under a rack of women’s clothes and tried calling the police. The line was busy. She tried again.

“It just rang and rang and rang,” she said. “So I called my husband back home, and he called 9-1-1 and was patched through to the Fort Lewis operator.”

A woman sat beside her under the rack, screaming and sobbing uncontrollably, Johnson said.

“Everyone in the store thought it was a mass shooting because of the number of gunshots,” she said. “My heart was racing. We weren’t sure if a gunman was coming for us.”

The woman next to Johnson was still in hysterics.

“She kept saying, ‘Oh, my God, I’m about to die,’ ” Johnson said, adding she shook her enough to run out of the store with her.

In a written statement, Fort Lewis officials expressed condolences to the victims’ families and commended the quick reaction by PX employees to evacuate the facility quickly without further injuries.

White also worked at McChord Air Force Base selling fashion accessories and jewelry.

The Tribune said she opened a custom fashion store in Fife named ZnZWear, named for her two children whose first names begin with Z. It closed last year but White retained a goal of one day owning several stores and entering manufacturing.

White also lent her talents to charities, helping the Boys & Girls Clubs with a fashion show every year, and assisting a Ugandan family by selling their handmade neckties in her store.

Fort Lewis is the nation's largest Army installation west of the Mississippi, with 30,000 soldiers. It is home to the nation's first Stryker brigades, which were first developed there in the late 1990s.

Washington's 81st Brigade heading home from Iraq

This in from the Washington National Guard Monday:

Citizen soldiers from the Washington National Guard's 81st Brigade Combat Team, headquartered in Seattle, are beginning to travel home from their second deployment to Iraq.

The 3,300 citizen-soldiers will complete their demobilization process at Fort McCoy, Wisc. and begin traveling one plane load at a time back home to Washington state. The first plane load
could arrive home as early as July 25.

Soldiers of the 81st will return to either McChord Air Force Base or Fairchild Air Force Base depending on where the soldier lives.

Upon arrival, they will be greeted by a brief welcome-home ceremony. It is anticipated that the entire brigade will have returned in its entirety by the end of the first week
of August.

"We are all delighted to have the 81st back home and honor them. Their service and dedication as soldiers is a shining example to our state and nation," Gov. Chris Gregoire said in a press release.

"Visiting the 81st in Iraq was a life changing experience for me and I've been working diligently to ensure they have access to the programs and support they need upon their return."

The demobilization process, a comprehensive approach to facilitate a soldiers reintegration as the rejoin families and reenter civilian life, typically takes about 6 days for a soldier to complete.

During the process soldiers receive briefings about transition to civilian life, pay and benefits, in addition to undergoing medical and dental evaluations.

The 81st entered federal active duty on August 18, 2008. After conducting pre-deployment training at the Yakima Training Center and Fort McCoy, they deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Missions for 81st units in Iraq typically focused on convoy security, force protection, provincial reconstruction and base operations.

The 81st is headquartered in Seattle but is comprised of units from around the State of Washington and a battalion from the California Army National Guard. Approximately 2,400 soldiers from Washington and about 900 from California comprised the deploying force of the 81st. The 81st previously served in Iraq from March 2004 to March 2005.

For more info, see http://www.washingtonguard.org