Teague made the introductions. Neither she nor Anderson wore a uniform, except for the patch on their jackets and the ID tags clipped to their shirts.

"I'm a social worker, and this is my partner, T-bone," she told the man. "We are from the VA. You're not in trouble."

Encounters such as this one represent a new approach to dealing with veterans in crisis. Against the backdrop and heartache of their persistently high suicide rates, authorities are touting the Los Angeles County program as a breakthrough in policing that could save lives.

At its core is the belief that veterans are often best equipped to talk brethren back from the brink - and to guide them to services. Since the program's launch in September, local law enforcement agencies answering such 911 calls have dispatched not only deputies or officers but also two-person teams from the Veterans Affairs hospital in Long Beach.

The duos have responded to more than 125 emergencies. A Vietnam vet whose thoughts had become so bleak he'd hung a noose in his backyard. A former soldier who'd run through traffic on a busy L.A. thoroughfare, swinging a knife and yelling at drivers that a voice was telling her to kill herself.

Vets "speak their own language," said Lt. John Gannon of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, who helped create the program and believes it's already made a difference. "It's a subculture."

On the call outside that transition house in a Los Angeles suburb, the distress was all too familiar: The man had PTSD and a brain injury suffered in combat. He also had a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

As Teague and Anderson learned, the veteran had spent the last three days wandering the streets. The home's operators refused to allow him back in given his repeated violations of their no-drugs rule. That's when he started shouting threats and kicking the door.

The pair coaxed him out of the squad car and into the back of their unmarked SUV to talk.

"It seems like you're having a rough morning," Teague said. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"You're probably going to laugh."

She remembers assuring him that she wouldn't judge him. He seemed exhausted. He apologized that his feet were smelly.

"I can see evil in people," he told her. "I can tell which people are evil."

Was anyone at the house evil? she asked.

"Yes."

What did he want to do to people who are evil?

"Cut their heads off."

—

The Veterans Health Administration runs about 170 medical centers across the country and employs roughly 4,700 sworn officers to patrol the grounds of its hospitals. With rare exceptions, officials acknowledge, they stay within their campus confines.

But the pilot program run by the VA Long Beach Healthcare System sends officers and clinicians off the grounds, either to respond to emergency calls or to check on veterans who have missed therapy appointments.

Supporters call the program the first of its kind and hope it will be replicated nationwide.

"Instead of telling veterans, 'Hey call the crisis line and then figure out a way to get to the hospital to get care,' we're going to change things up. . . . We're coming to you," said David Weiner, who recently retired as the Long Beach VA police chief.

About 20 veterans kill themselves every day in the United States - a suicide rate that is 1.5 times that of the civilian population, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. On average, officials say, nearly three-quarters of those veterans had not sought therapy, drug rehab and other services for which they are eligible.

Teague doesn't need statistics to understand the magnitude of the problem. Just in the past two years, three of the roughly 75 soldiers from her unit who served in Iraq have taken their own lives.

"It's really hard to be on Facebook and you see somebody starting to decline and showing those signs of, like, 'Dude I'm struggling really bad,' " she said. "And then, next thing you know, we find out he's passed."

She and Anderson make an interesting pair. She's 37, a social worker with two sleeve tattoos that end in messages at each wrist - Love God on the left, Love Others on the right. He's 55, tall and bald, a longtime cop whose demeanor seems as suited to teaching as policing.

Both faced their share of trauma while in the Marines. Anderson was shot at repeatedly during his tour of Lebanon, where he arrived just after 17 comrades from his company were killed in a 1983 terrorist attack. And Teague broke her neck during a training exercise before her unit's deployment in 2003.

As a rule, neither shares their war stories with the vets they assist, nor do they pry for details about their clients' combat histories.

"Sometimes you don't want to bring stuff up, because there are certain trigger mechanisms that can set people off," Anderson said.

The work that brought them together on the Veterans Mental Evaluation Team - VMET for short - was inspired by a tragedy in early 2018. As a former Marine who had been making threats was being arrested, he wheeled around and clocked a deputy. In the ensuing melee with other deputies, 47-year-old Jeremy Spencer started having trouble breathing. He died at the scene. (No cause of death has been released, and the county district attorney continues to investigate, a homicide detective confirmed.)

"Most of our people were not connecting with this guy on a personal level," said Gannon, who runs the Sheriff's Department Mental Evaluation Teams - also clinician-cop pairings dispatched to scenes where mentally ill people are posing a danger to themselves or others. He wondered whether that effort could add a veterans component and pitched the idea to area VA officials.

The Long Beach facility was receptive. Talks are underway about a similar program at the VA West Los Angeles Medical Center. The VA in Spokane has also expressed an interest.

During VMET's first four months, Teague and Anderson - with help from a night crew of two VA officers - responded to about 275 calls. About half of them were urgent calls in the field; the other half were follow-ups monitoring the progress of vets they'd helped connect to services.

"When there are situations that could potentially lead to really bad outcomes, we need to be out there and we need to be getting our veterans the care that they need," said Larry Albers, chief of psychiatry at the Long Beach VA. He believes lives have already been saved, though the program is too new for any studies of its outcomes.

On at least one occasion, the situation was very far afield, involving a 27-year-old combat veteran in Phoenix who'd texted his brother a disturbing message and a photo of a shotgun. Their aunt knew Weiner and so contacted his office at the VA. The chief had Teague phone the vet, who'd recently lost two cousins - also combat veterans - to suicide.

"Him getting a call from the VA - the exact organization he feels has abandoned him - meant the world to him," April Peters said of her nephew. Teague persuaded him to try therapy.

—

Any intervention that keeps a vet safe is considered a success, yet there's no certainty for what happens after that. The veteran at that suburban transition house agreed to a psychiatric evaluation at the Long Beach VA and then was sent to an outside detox facility. By early March, he seemed to have disappeared.

Sometimes, though, a full transformation takes place.

Thirty-six-year-old Jermaine Petit was a tragedy waiting to happen when Teague and Anderson first met him.

As an Air Force medic in Germany during the early 2000s, he'd treated U.S. soldiers gravely wounded in Iraq. But when he returned to Los Angeles after his tour, his life began unraveling. He started using crystal meth. He'd often wander the streets, homeless, paranoid and delusional, armed with hatchets and knives. He was arrested more than a dozen times, with police once subduing him with a Taser.

The VA team got called late one night after Petit had a confrontation with some men his mother feared were gang members. The team drove 30 miles to her home, arriving to find the veteran clutching a hammer. They eventually persuaded him to set it aside and go with them to the VA hospital in Long Beach.

Teague and Anderson began visiting Petit there in the psychiatric ward. At first he was nonresponsive. "He felt we kidnapped him," Anderson remembers.

Yet in rehab, he started focusing on goals and even mentoring others. These days he hugs his visitors.

"When you see someone at one of their lowest points and you see them in such desperation, and then to be able to kind of follow them through their journey of recovery, to see them at a point where they are flourishing - it's really heartwarming and gratifying," Teague said.

Petit is now in a transitional living house. He wants to go to school, find a place of his own and rekindle his relationship with his estranged 14-year-old daughter.

He says he is trying to reinvent himself: "I don't want my mom to die from a broken heart."

Charlotte Blackwell is grateful. Her son "sounds like the old Jermaine," she says. Without the VA program's help, he "would be out there on the streets, dead."

Intercontinental Terminals Company spokeswoman Alice Richardson said at a news conference Wednesday that crews were cleaning up the facility in Deer Park, located southeast of Houston, so the investigation can begin into what caused the blaze.

The fire, which started Sunday , sent a huge, dark plume of smoke thousands of feet into the air before being extinguished at 3 a.m. Wednesday. The tanks that caught fire contained components of gasoline and materials used in nail polish remover, glues and paint thinner. ITC said 11 of the 15 storage tanks located in the area where the fire occurred were damaged.

The blaze briefly flared up late Wednesday afternoon. The flare-up, which sent flames and smoke into the air, was contained within 30 seconds by firefighters, the city of Deer Park said in a tweet.

The Environmental Protection conducted air quality tests throughout the Houston area, both on the ground and from a small airplane, and "measured no levels of hazardous concentrations," said agency official Adam Adams.

The EPA also reviewed data collected by ITC, Harris County, where Houston is located, and by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and that data did not show hazardous concentrations of volatile organic compounds, Adams said.

The state environmental agency said in a statement Wednesday that the benzene levels it found near and around the storage facility do not pose a health concern.

But some residents who live near the storage facility said Wednesday they don't have confidence in the air quality test results.

"Everything has been wrapped up in this nice perfect bow in saying that there were no problems. Every air quality was perfect. Every wind was perfect blowing it away. And if everything was so perfect, why did it happen?" longtime Deer Park resident Terri Garcia said.

Bryan Parras, an organizer in Houston with the Sierra Club, said some residents who live near the facility have experienced various symptoms since the fire, including headaches, nausea and nose bleeds. He said his environmental group has concerns not just about the air quality, but about potential impacts to the environment and the fishing industry if chemicals from the storage facility or foam used to fight the fire leaked into the Houston Ship Channel, which leads to the Gulf of Mexico.

"This issue isn't over just because the fire is out. We want systems in place that will protect our communities," Parras said.

The EPA and the TCEQ said they are waiting for test results of water samples to determine any potential impacts from the foam used to fight the fire on waterways next to the storage facility, including the Houston Ship Channel.

Sema Hernandez, who lives in Pasadena, just west of Deer Park, said all four of her children have experienced headaches since the fire started Sunday. But she has not been able to take them to a doctor because she doesn't have health insurance.

"This shouldn't have happened. ... But it did. My question is, what do we do now?" Hernandez said.

The Harris County Public Health Department said in a statement Wednesday that based on current health-related data from multiple sources, "there continues to be a low health risk for the general public."

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who took office in January, said she understands the fears and concerns some residents have had but she and other officials have worked to be transparent with the public.

"From the beginning of taking office, I said we need to move toward a place of transparency and we need to move toward a place where we recognize our environment and our health as a human right," said Hidalgo, the county's top administrator.

Richardson said her company has been in Deer Park for more than 40 years and would work to regain the community's trust.

"We want to operate safely with minimal impact around us," Richardson said. "We're sorry for what has happened."

Garcia said she fears that she and other residents will be dealing with the impacts of the fire long after people have forgotten about it.

"We are going to be the ones figuring out what was really in the air ... because our families are the ones going to be sick," she said.

___

Associated Press writer David Warren in Dallas contributed to this report.

A recipient of the Silver Star, Cowart brushed it off, assuming someone wanted to send him an invitation to an event. A second phone call later that day from the Pentagon triggered his curiosity. He was told to expect a third call from a senior ranking official in the next day or two – and that it was good news.

The next day, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel Dailey called to congratulate Cowart — his Silver Star would soon be upgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army's second highest award for valor.

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“I had no idea my award was under review,” said Cowart, who now lives in Santa Fe, Texas, near Houston. “The Distinguished Service Cross is a great honor.”

Cowart’s award is one of a dozen Silver Star medals announced recently by the Army for upgrade through a review process of post-9/11 valor awards that began in 2016. All military departments have completed their respective reviews, said Air Force Lt. Col. Carla Gleason, Pentagon spokeswoman. However, there are a few Army cases still pending final decision or announcement. Of the Army’s 12 awards announced this year, only five names have been released.

The review encompassed about 100 citations of the Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross and Air Force Cross and about 1,000 Silver Star recommendations.

It has resulted in 57 upgrades: four Medals of Honor, 16 Distinguished Service Crosses, 12 Navy Crosses, two Air Force Crosses and 23 Silver Stars, Gleason said.

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“The Army is currently in the process of scheduling the associated award presentation ceremonies,” she said.

When then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter ordered the review, the Pentagon established a definition for combat that all services now use: “The definition will encompass meritorious service while personally exposed to hostile action or while under significant risk of hostile action.”

So far, three of the Medals of Honor have been presented and the fourth ceremony to honor the late Staff Sgt. Travis Atkins will take place at the White House on March 27. Atkins died June 1, 2007 while deployed near Bagdad, Iraq, with the 10th Mountain Division. He saved the lives of three other soldiers by shielding them from a suicide bomber.

Distinguished Service Cross presentations for the late Maj. Thomas G. Bostick and Capt. Andrew L. Bundermann took place earlier this year. A service for Sgt. Robert K. Debolt will take place March 28 at Fort Riley, Kan., and for the late Staff Sgt. Stevon A. Booker on April 5 in Pittsburg, Pa.

Cowart said Dailey told him during their call that he sat on the review board for Cowart’s medal review and the process took about one year.

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Cowart’s medal was awarded based on his actions May 13, 2007 in Samarra, Iraq, while serving as gunner with 1st Platoon, Delta Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment — part of the 1st Cavalry Division. At a traffic checkpoint operated by his platoon, two occupants from a vehicle exited a car — one opened fire on the soldiers and the other was wearing a suicide vest.

Cowart tackled the man in the vest, who ultimately detonated the device. While his actions limited damage from the explosion, Cowart’s platoon leader 1st Lt. Andrew Bacevich Jr., who was nearby, died as a result of the blast. Cowart lost his left leg.

"After the explosion, it starts to get a little blurry,” Cowart said in an Army new release. “I know I didn't see a weapon. I didn't see a suicide vest. I wasn't just going to shoot an unarmed guy. But I knew he was a threat and had to do something. We had a struggle, but then it was all black and I woke up in a hospital in Ballad [Iraq].”

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Eventually, Cowart was moved to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he would spend the next 15 months.

Jonathan Free served in Cowart’s platoon and was there that day. Cowart served as Free’s sergeant and described him as the type of leader who was actually looking out for his soldiers.

“It was such an intense moment,” said Free, who traveled from Colorado to witness the pinning ceremony. In the moments following the attack, “I felt if I wasn’t with him, he wasn’t going to be OK. That’s how I feel today with him getting the award.”

Craig Hall, a member of the platoon who was wounded two weeks before Cowart, was there with him at the medical center in San Antonio. Together, the two mourned the loss of their lieutenant and recovered from their wounds.

“(Cowart) is one of the only guys I was able to speak to afterward. We are mentally and spiritually connected. He’s a lifelong friend,” said Hall, who flew to Texas from Massachusetts for the ceremony because he felt he owed it to Bacevich.

The award upgrade “is a testament to the guy (Cowart). Really is. He’s selfless and he cares about everyone,” Hall said.

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Returning to Fort Hood for the ceremony this week, the 1st Cavalry Division rolled out the red carpet for Cowart and his family. They were given access to view military vehicles up close, tour the museum and stables, and his 14-year-old twin daughters rode horses from the division’s Horse Cavalry Detachment.

“I am honored and humbled,” Cowart said Wednesday at the podium during his ceremony, standing before hundreds of active-duty servicemembers who filled the bleachers and spilled onto the surrounding grass.

Free and Hall were joined at the ceremony by about a dozen other veterans who served alongside Cowart, who poke of the joy of seeing his fellow soldiers again, as well as the difficult memories it conjured.

“Reuniting also brings sadness. Sadly, one member of the crew isn’t here,” he said, referring to Bacevich. “I think about those events every day.”

thayer.rose@stripes.com
Twitter: @Rose_Lori

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Despite a fireball and an explosion powerful enough to buckle the car's doors, the victim miraculously escaped injury when the bomb was detonated as he drove down a Bronx street in 2016.

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said he would have sentenced Richard Laugel to 20 years in prison if not for his military heroism, which included two stints in Iraq.

"I want to thank you for your service to your country," Engelmayer said. "You have been a hero, and you have it in yourself to be that way again."

But the judge also said PTSD does not excuse Laugel's crime and he was "incredibly fortunate no one was hurt" when he tried to settle an ongoing feud with a neighbor who had quarreled with him over a parking spot.

"It's a rare person who tries to blow up their adversary's car with a pipe bomb," Engelmayer said.

Prosecutors said the March 2, 2016, attack came after Laugel put a pipe bomb in the rear tire well of his Bronx neighbor's car. They said he followed the car in his own vehicle a few blocks before activating the bomb remotely.

The loud explosion created a fireball that blew out the car's air bags and buckled the car doors, though it failed to ignite the gas tank. An FBI analysis showed the bomb was loaded with nails.

Arrested on state arson and attempted murder charges in March 2016, Laugel remained incarcerated until February 2018. A May 2018 narcotics raid on his residence revealed he was manufacturing firearms and silencers in his garage, prosecutors said.

In court papers, attorney Troy A. Smith said his client suffered from classic post-traumatic stress.

He described one instance in which Laugel heard fireworks outside his then-California residence and ran outside in his underwear with his licensed firearm, "completely under the assumption he was in Iraq and defending himself and his fellow marines from harm."

"He was also experiencing nightmares containing images of combat and would wake up screaming and drenched in sweat," Smith wrote.

Engelmayer said it was "blatantly obvious" Laugel suffers from PTSD.

He read a letter in which Laugel said: "I constantly suffered from survivor's guilt."

The judge also cited a letter from Laugel's former platoon commander, retired Sgt. Maj. M. Dallas Miller, saying Laugel provided security during the initial invasion of Iraq for former Secretary of Defense James Mattis who led a Marine division at the time.

Miller said Laugel helped train, plan and execute high-risk missions in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2005.

He said it is easy for people to write someone off with PTSD.

"What we should be doing is wrapping our arms around him, help him address his issues that led him to make a poor decision, and help him get back on track," Miller said.

The American Legion is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and Tahlequah has two posts where vets can seek assistance or socialize with fellow former servicemembers. Civilians might try to understand the trials and tribulations of being in the armed forces, but they won’t be able to relate like someone who has been there.

“The American Legion — it’s a place to come with people you can relate to,” said Joe Weavel, American Legion Post 135’s adjutant. “Veterans and civilians are a little different. Sometimes, civilians just don’t know all the crap we went through.”

Weavel said the military “is kind of a strange place.” Many of those who signed up had less structured lives before entering the military. Then they are placed into a system that focuses on discipline and strict regimens.

After that, they’re released back into civilian life once their tours of duty are over.

“All of a sudden, you’re out of a structure and you’re free. The thing is, all your friends you went to high school with are gone, or they’ve gone to college, gotten their degrees and they have some good jobs,” Weavel said. “If you went into the military out of high school and four years later you get out, it’s almost like getting out of high school again, because you’re kind of starting over.”

Although Weavel said he had a chance to see the world while his friends from high school were stuck in the same town where they graduated, he also admitted he felt like he missed something while away from life in the U.S. Many who return are not always sure about the next step, but that’s where American Legion steps in.

“Our programs are designed to help,” said Bruce Ross, former commander of American Legion Post 135. “Our first cardinal principle is the aid of American veterans. We try to do anything we can to help them adjust to civilian life. It can be anywhere from providing jobs for them or pointing them in the right direction, or showing them how to navigate the [Department of Veterans Affairs] system through utilizing the VA hospital.”

The American Legion has a service officer to point vets in the right direction. However, not much information is given to armed service personnel when they are discharged, said Ross, adding that the help vets receive “doesn’t cut it.”

“All of us need help at one point or another,” said Ross. “The veterans themselves are one big family. We try to help each other as best we can, but we’re always needing help.”

Post 135 once had about 320 members during Ross’ last year as commander, which was nearly 25 years ago. Now the members number anywhere between 200 and 250. Ross, who travels to other American Legion posts around the country to swap ideas and plans, said membership numbers are not just a local problem.

“This is a nationwide problem,” said Ross. “Every organization is struggling on membership.”

One problem is that American Legion posts are having a hard time recruiting younger members. Weavel said benefits received from the original G.I. Bill — the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, which ended in 1956 — allowed more time to join organizations like the American Legion.

However, even he didn’t join as soon as he was discharged.

“We don’t have a lot of young people,” Weavel said. “I didn’t join the American Legion when I was young after I got out. I didn’t have time. I was raising a family. We could use younger folks, but I understand why they can’t join.”

Veterans have essentially three reasons to join the American Legion: to get help adjusting back to civilian life; to help others adjust to civilian life; and to find camaraderie. Ross said Post 135 lifts eyebrows among a certain segment of the population because it has a bar, but he said American Legion members are far more concerned with volunteer service than they are with consuming alcohol.

“We’re not just a bunch of guys who come out there, hang out around American Legion and get drunk,” said Ross. “We don’t come out there to sit around and talk about war stories. We sit around and talk about how we can help people.”

Veterans who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder vary by areas of service, according to the VA.

Between 11 percent and 20 percent of vets who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom have PTSD in a given year. It is estimated that 12 percent of Gulf War veterans have PTSD, and about 30 percent of Vietnam veterans have had PTSD in their lifetimes.

Ross said the American Legion doesn’t see a lot of veterans with PTSD, “but it is definitely there.” Ross, himself a Vietnam veteran, said times are changing as more veterans are beginning to talk about mental health problems. For many, though, having PTSD is not something they want to share with the world, which can make them hesitant to seek any type of help.

“Most people didn’t say anything to us about anything, and we kept everything inside,” said Ross. “We didn’t go out and talk about it, but with the way media comes out now with constant barrage of PTSD this, PTSD that, the guys are all talking about it. Then they shy away from the organizations, which is one thing they should not do. They should get involved and let us help them.”

The nation’s largest wartime veterans service organization, the American Legion has flourished since it was incorporated by Congress in 1919. However, its success is largely reliant on active membership. Ross said camaraderie is a key element to the organization, but added that people should join to continue their service outside of the military.

“They should join to help other veterans,” said Ross. “You don’t necessarily have to want help out there, but you might have the desire to help someone else. That’s pretty damn important.”

For more information about the American Legion Post 135, call 918-456-6768. For more information about American Legion Post 50, call 918-453-1227. For other information about the American Legion, visit www.legion.org.

©2019 the Tahlequah Daily Press (Tahlequah, Okla.)
Visit the Tahlequah Daily Press (Tahlequah, Okla.) at www.tahlequahdailypress.com
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Trump enumerated a list of grievances against McCain, who died in August, including that he had wrongly supported the war in Iraq, failed to “get the job done” for veterans and “badly” hurt the Republican party and the nation by voting against repealing Obamacare.

The president also complained that McCain had turned over the so-called Steele dossier to federal authorities during the 2016 presidential campaign instead of alerting Trump himself. The dossier is a private, uncorroborated intelligence report alleging ties between Trump and the Russian government.

“He got it, and what did he do? He didn’t call me, he turned it over to the FBI, hoping to put me in jeopardy,” Trump said.

Trump’s criticism of the late senator came after senior Republican lawmakers offered implicit and explicit criticism of the president for remarks earlier this week attacking McCain.

Senate Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Johnny Isakson called Trump’s attacks “deplorable” in an interview with Georgia Public Broadcasting’s “Political Rewind” radio program earlier on Wednesday.

“That’s what I called it from the floor of the Senate seven months ago,” Isakson said, when the senator criticized the Trump administration for lowering the White House flag to half-staff for only a single day following McCain’s death. “It will be deplorable seven months from now if he says it again and I will continue to speak out.”

The flag was returned to half-staff following Isakson’s criticism.

Trump recalled the controversy over McCain’s memorial services during his remarks Wednesday, claiming that he “gave him the kind of funeral he wanted” but “didn’t get a thank you.” McCain laid in state at the U.S. Capitol — a decision made by congressional leaders, not Trump — before his burial last year.

Other Republican senators also weighed in on Trump’s fresh attacks on McCain, the former Armed Services Committee chairman who died of brain cancer. McCain, an Arizona Republican who had served in Congress since 1983, was a onetime Navy pilot who was North Vietnam’s most prominent prisoner of war.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell praised McCain in a tweet Wednesday that didn’t mention the president or his criticisms. McConnell, R-Ky., wrote that he missed McCain every day and added, “It was a blessing to serve alongside a rare patriot and genuine American hero in the Senate.”

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who was just elected to a six-year term, said on Twitter, “I can’t understand why the President would, once again, disparage a man as exemplary as my friend John McCain.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., long McCain’s best friend in the Senate, tweeted praise for McCain without mentioning Trump. Graham has become perhaps Trump’s most important ally in the Senate, changing his tune dramatically from before Trump’s election, when the senator predicted that he would destroy the Republican Party.

Most Republicans go to great lengths to avoid criticizing Trump to keep from also becoming targets of presidential tirades on Twitter. Trump remains immensely popular among Republican voters, which makes such a move especially risky. Former senators Jeff Flake of Arizona and Bob Corker of Tennessee both tussled with Trump and retired rather than face tough Republican primary challenges in 2018.

Isakson, R-Ga., is somewhat insulated from political pressure because he won his third Senate term in 2016 and won’t be up for re-election until 2022. Still, he needs Trump for issues important to his state, such as a disaster-relief package scheduled to be on the Senate floor next week.

“We’re all Americans,” Isakson said on the radio program. “There aren’t Democratic casualties and Republican casualties on the battlefield, there are American casualties, and we should never reduce the service that people give to this country.”

Trump, as a candidate in 2015, picked a fight with McCain, declaring that the Navy veteran was “not a war hero” for spending five years being tortured in a Vietnamese prison and refusing advantages offered to him because his father was a prominent military leader. “I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said at the time.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on Twitter he will reintroduce his legislation to rename the Russell Senate Office Building after McCain, whom he called an “American hero.” The building was named in 1972 after Georgia Democratic Senator Richard Russell, a proponent of racial segregation who fought the Civil Rights Act.

Isakson rejected Schumer’s call to rename the Russell building, saying Schumer is “just playing politics.”

He shot down at least two airplanes before everyone aboard the aircraft carrier was ordered to abandon ship near the Santa Cruz Islands in the South Pacific.

He didn’t think he’d survive.

“I had to go overboard after I shot them down,” said Gardner, now 98 and living at a Norfolk nursing home. “I stayed in the water for about three hours.”

The memory is one of many that came flooding back after the Hornet’s final resting place was discovered at the bottom of the South Pacific near the Solomon Islands in late January and was announced to the world a few weeks ago. The Hornet is of particular historic significance because it was the aircraft carrier used to launch the first bombers against the Japanese homeland during the famous Doolittle Raid, which provided a significant morale boost following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

After the Hornet’s discovery, staff at the nursing home showed Gardner a copy of The Virginian-Pilot that included a story and underwater photographs of his ship.

It lit a spark in his mind. He couldn’t stop talking about the Hornet.

“For days,” Maria Turnage, an activity assistant at Thornton Hall Nursing and Rehab Center, said with a laugh.

“At the end of the day, it’s a piece of American history,” she said. “This is something everyone should know about. We are lucky to be with him every day and see him be J.J. He’s a charmer and keeps us all on our toes.”

The stories come back to Gardner in bits and pieces. He has difficulty hearing and at his age, parts of his memory are foggy.

But his career is well documented.

After finally being rescued from the water, he was offered a bunk aboard the cruiser USS Juneau until he could get to shore to be treated for his injuries. The sailor who offered his bunk was one of the five Sullivan brothers — he can’t remember which one — who were all killed during the Battle of Guadalcanal about three weeks after the Hornet was sunk and are memorialized to this day by the destroyer USS The Sullivans.

In 1943, Gardner was featured in the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot for receiving a citation from Adm. William Halsey, who was the commander of the South Pacific Forces, for heroism on the Hornet. He also had received one from Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Chester Nimitz for his role as an aviation machinist’s mate during the Battle of Midway, during which the pilot he supported shot down four aircraft.

“The Norfolk youth apparently bears a charmed life, for he once served on the cruiser Vincennes, which was sunk early last August in the Solomons with two other American and an Australian cruiser,” the Pilot wrote in 1943. “After the Hornet was sunk, he was rescued by a destroyer and transferred to the light cruiser Juneau, lost with many officers and men, only a short time later.”

Turnage spends every day with Gardner and is a history buff. But even she was stunned to learn everything he said happened really did.

“I didn’t really think it was 100 percent true,” Turnage said of the stories she first started hearing a few years ago. “But it’s true.”

Gardner still has the citation from Halsey.

He also has a citation for a Bronze Star issued in 1946 for gallantry during landing assaults against Japanese positions in 1942 and a document from 1995 signed by Navy Secretary John Dalton commemorating his role in the Doolittle Raid.

“These raids were an enormous boost to the morale of the American people in those early and dark days of the war and a harbinger of the future of the Japanese High Command that had so foolishly awakened ‘The Sleeping Giant,’ ” the citation says. “These exploits, which so inspired the service men and women and the nation live on today and are remembered when the necessity of success against all odds is required.”

Usually, Gardner wears one of the four Navy hats he owns. But for all of his excitement about the Hornet and his role in naval history, he wasn’t always so talkative.

His son, Jay Gardner, 63, said he never heard any stories about the war when he was growing up.

“He actually never talked about his military service,” the younger Gardner said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, where he lives, “which I think is a shame. It wasn’t until the last 15 or 20 years that he started talking about it. Part of it is because most of his shipmates had passed away at that point. We were really surprised about some of the things he told us about.”

When he did open up, he said his father told stories of seeing some of his Hornet shipmates eaten by sharks. He said he was made a chief petty officer at 19 after entering the Navy just two years earlier.

When he heard on the news that his father’s ship was discovered, he said he “was floored.”

“I was excited for my father. I’m hoping that he gets some more information about it from the people that discovered it. I don’t know how many of his old crewmembers are still alive,” he said. “I imagine most of them have passed. But I’m just dying to hear more information on it, what they found.”

What researchers, funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, found more than 3 miles beneath the surface is a damaged, but largely intact, warship. There are pictures of weapons and a hole in the Hornet’s hull.

The discovery resonated with today’s sailors as much as yesterday’s.

“As America’s Navy once again takes to the sea in an uncertain world, Hornet’s discovery offers the American Sailor a timeless reminder of what courage, grit, and commitment truly look like,” Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Bill Moran said in a statement. “We’d be wise as a nation to take a long, hard look.”

That sentiment is one of the things Noel Lumanog, Gardner’s friend, wants young people to know, too.

Lumanog is an Air Force veteran who has visited Gardner regularly ever since Gardner’s other son, who lived locally, died about two years ago.

“If we were to lose World War II, we wouldn’t have had a United States to come back to,” Lumanog said. “It’s very important that the younger generation know that and honor these World War II veterans.

Gardner no longer has any family in the area and Lumanog serves as an advocate for him through his role at the local Veterans of Foreign Wars, and is still trying to get him disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs for injuries he suffered during the attack on Hornet — including his hearing and knees.

But Lumanog prefers simply to be known as Gardner’s friend.

He said when Gardner first learned about the Hornet’s discovery, he went on and on, talking about the Battle of Santa Cruz, where it sank.

“He was real excited,” Lumanog said. “His eyes lit up.”

Gardner’s son said his father retired from the Navy about 1960. And while he spent time on other ships — including as an original crewmember of the battle-hardened WWII aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La — the USS Hornet reunions are what he remembers his father attending in Norfolk after he left the Navy.

If there was any doubt how important the Hornet was to him, Gardner gives a quick response to a question about what his favorite ship was.

“CV-8,” he says.

That’s the Navy’s ship designation and hull number for the sunken Hornet.

Always a sailor. Even at 98.

©2019 The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)
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The investigation will determine whether Shanahan has promoted Boeing, where he worked for more than 30 years before arriving at the Pentagon in 2017, or disparaged the massive aerospace firm’s competitors, an IG statement said Wednesday. When Shanahan was sworn in as the deputy defense secretary in July 2017, he signed an ethics pledge, vowing he would recuse himself from any issues that could impact Boeing.

The probe follows a complaint issued last week by an independent and nonpartisan government watchdog group based in Washington, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, which questioned Shanahan’s actions as the Pentagon’s No. 2 civilian and as the acting secretary, his job since since Jan. 1.

The acting secretary has been informed of the investigation, said Dwrena Allen, a spokeswoman for the IG.

Shanahan has previously denied any wrongdoing and told lawmakers last week that he welcomed the probe.

“Acting Secretary Shanahan has at all times remained committed to upholding his ethics agreement filed with the DOD,” Army Lt. Col. Joe Buccino, a spokesman for Shanahan, said Wednesday. “This agreement ensures any matters pertaining to Boeing are handled by appropriate officials within the Pentagon to eliminate any perceived or actual conflict of interest issue with Boeing.”

In its March 13 complaint, CREW cited several media reports that indicated Shanahan in private meetings had promoted Boeing products to his subordinates and had disparaged Lockheed Martin, which was chosen over Boeing to build the F-35 Lightning II advanced fighter jet.

Shanahan, 56, was named acting defense secretary by President Donald Trump on Jan. 1 after serving as the Pentagon’s No. 2 under former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis since July 2017. He had previously been employed at Boeing since 1986, working on military-related programs as well as commercial aviation. He was serving as the company’s senior vice president for supply chain and operations when he left to work at the Pentagon.

Shanahan has been considered among Trump’s top choices to be nominated to the defense secretary post, but Pentagon and White House officials have declined to comment publicly about him or others who could be tapped to fill the position.

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He shared his journey and message with both Georgia Military College and Prep School cadets throughout the day Monday. The local military college and school for grades 4-12 often brings servicemembers onto campus to speak with the cadets, and Dwyer provided a different perspective from most.

A third-generation military man — his father was in the Air Force and his grandfather served in the Navy — Dwyer was commissioned into the Army from Furman University in 1998 before joining Special Forces four years later. In 2006, while on his third tour in Afghanistan, a rocket-propelled grenade attack caused Dwyer to lose both his left hand and his left eye.

“Of course, it was challenging,” Dwyer said of coming back from his injuries. “Fortunately, I was surrounded by a ton of positive influences, and I ignored all the negative ones, which is always a bonus.”

Near the end of his recuperation, Dwyer ran an idea by one of those positive influences, his wife, Jennie. He said he wanted to remain in the Special Forces, go back to Afghanistan, and do everything he had done before his injuries. It was at this point in his story that he took a break from his interview with The Union-Recorder and turned to the GMC cadets he was eating lunch with, and shared another important message.

“The most important decision you will ever make in your life is who you’re going to spend the rest of it with,” Dwyer said. “I’ve made two good decisions in my life and a ton of bad ones. I picked the perfect woman to marry, which was good decision No. 1, and I joined the United States Army. Those two decisions set me up for where I am.”

With the support of his wife, Dwyer remained in the Army and now serves as the garrison commander at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah.

“The primary reason is the camaraderie and the brotherhood that I feel for the guys I’ve served with,” he said on why he stayed in the service. “I would do anything for them, and I know that they would do anything for me. I also want the people around me — my soldiers, superiors, peers, my kids, and everybody around me — to realize it’s not OK to quit doing what you love just because life is hard. That’s the time to double down and just make it happen.”

Some people wear their heart on their sleeve, but Dwyer wears at least a portion of his in his eye. The Special Forces crest is embedded into his left eye full-time, not just when he’s out on speaking engagements.

“I wear it as a tribute to my guys, and I wear it so people will ask me about it,” he said. “I want to tell them how proud I am of everything my guys have accomplished.”

His message to GMC cadets Monday was one of overcoming adversity and having the tools necessary to do so — not just as individuals, but as leaders to help them develop “resilient, bulletproof teams.”

“He’s what every infantryman aspires to be,” said Franco Videla, a GMC cadet from Roswell, Ga. “I know most infantrymen love their job. It doesn’t matter whether they’re hurt or not, they’ll always want to do it. Hearing his (Dwyer’s) story, I know that I’m not going to complain if I’m given a dumb task. I’m going to give it my all like I should be doing.”

©2019 The Union-Recorder (Milledgeville, Ga.)
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The Commemorative Air Force Red Tail Squadron’s “Rise Above” Traveling Exhibit opened Wednesday and will be on display through Sunday to showcase the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, also known as the Red Tails because of the distinctive red-tailed P-51 Mustang aircraft they flew during World War II.

The free exhibit is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily at the airport at 2020 Executive Airport Way in Fort Lauderdale.

Among other things, the exhibit features a movie theater with a 160-degree panoramic screen housed inside an air-conditioned 53-foot semitrailer with expandable sides and equipped with a ramp and a hydraulic lift for wheelchair users.

The movie helps audiences experience what it was like to be among America’s first black military pilots and their support personnel as they worked toward their goal of becoming Army Air Corps pilots in the early 1940s.

After the movie, audiences can take a virtual flight in the cockpit of a P-51 Mustang, the iconic aircraft of the Tuskegee Airmen.

A fully operational, twice-restored Red Tail P-51C Mustang also is on display as part of the exhibit. The aircraft is one of only four like it that are still flying, organizers said.

Retired Tuskegee Airmen pilot Lt. Col. George E. Hardy will be on site Thursday and Friday. He’ll be speaking about his experiences as a Tuskegee Airman at 11 a.m. on Saturday, during the executive airport’s annual Aviation Safety Expo.

Now in his mid-90s, Hardy is the youngest of the 13 known living Red Tail combat pilots.

More information can be found online at flyfxe.com or redtail.org.

©2019 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
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Justin Walters, 32, who served as an infantryman during two tours in Afghanistan, shot his wife Nichole Walters, 27, multiple times on July 9, 2017. Nichole died of her wounds inside the home, located in Theresa, about 80 miles outside of Syracuse.

Walters also fatally shot 36-year-old Joel Davis, a trooper and married father of three who had responded to the home.

A jury found Walters guilty Wednesday morning on 52 counts – including two counts of first-degree murder, as well as attempted murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon. He did not display a reaction when the verdict was read.

Rather than argue that Walters had not committed the crime, his attorney Ed Narrow, argued – along with a psychiatrist, his only witness – that Walters was not responsible for the crimes due to PTSD, alcoholism and childhood trauma, rendering him incapable of controlling himself on that tragic night, WWNY-TV reported.

Davis, who had been a member of the force for four years, was responding to a 911 call citing an argument at the residence.

Upon arrival, he heard gunshots and ordered backup. Though he reached for his own weapon, a semi-automatic rifle, he was shot in the chest before he could defend himself, according to police. The trooper then fell into a ditch, making it difficult for his colleagues to locate him.

It wasn’t until after Walters surrendered that the troopers were able to locate Davis. He was taken to Watertown’s Samaritan Medical Center where he was pronounced dead within the hour.

Nichole’s friend, Rebecca Finkle, was also shot but survived.

At the time of the shootings, Walters was an active-duty soldier stationed at Jefferson County’s Fort Drum. He was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division.

Gov. Cuomo instructed that government buildings lower their flags to half-staff following Davis’ death.

©2019 New York Daily News
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"Let it come out, let people see it," Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Wednesday for a trip to Ohio. "Let's see whether or not it's legit."

Mueller is expected to present a report to the Justice Department any day now outlining the findings of his nearly two-year investigation into Russian election meddling, possible collusion with Trump campaign officials and possible obstruction of justice by Trump.

Mueller is required to produce a confidential report that at a minimum explains decisions about who was and was not prosecuted. Attorney General William Barr is then expected to produce his own report for Congress and has said he wants to make public as much of Mueller's findings as he can under the law.

Trump said he was personally looking forward to reading the findings, even as he scorned the fact that Mueller was empowered to write the report in the first place.

"I just won one of the greatest elections of all time in the history of this country. ... And now I have somebody writing a report that never got a vote?" Trump said. "It's called the Mueller report. So explain that because my voters don't get it. And I don't get it."

Trump went on to mischaracterize the effort, saying "it's sort of interesting that a man out of the blue just writes a report."

The House voted unanimously last week for a resolution calling for any report in Mueller's investigation to be made public. It was a symbolic action designed to pressure Barr into releasing as much information as possible.

Trump and his outside attorneys have worked for months now to undermine Mueller and cast doubt on his eventually findings. Trump continued that effort Wednesday, calling Mueller "conflicted" and criticizing the lawyers who have worked on the case.

Though Mueller's office has said nothing publicly about the timing of a report, several prosecutors detailed to Mueller's team have left in recent months, suggesting the investigation is winding down.

Trump, for his part, said he had no idea when the report would be released, but maintained his innocence, saying there was "no collusion" and "no obstruction. There was no nothing."

"With all of that being said," he added, "I look forward to seeing the report."

__

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

The Army’s March 8 budget request scratches the Chinook upgrade, stops production of Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and reduces planned purchases of Joint Strike Force vehicles, .50-caliber machine guns and forklifts, among other familiar war tools.

Instead, the military plans to spend billions of dollars more on new assault helicopters, robotic vehicles, digitally connected weapons, space communications and short-range missile defenses, among other priorities to cope with improved Chinese missiles and Russian missile defenses and cyberattacks, Army undersecretary Ryan McCarthy said in a March 11 talk at the Brookings Institution.

Though Chinooks were deployed more than 50 years ago in the Vietnam War, the heavy-lift helicopters are now “the youngest fleet in the Army,” given previous upgrades, McCarthy added. “The Army has over 10 percent more Chinooks than required.” Work is to continue on Special Forces helicopters now being upgraded at Ridley and on a separate production line for V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

Boeing officials still want to save the program. “Delaying CH-47F Block II production funding would have significant detrimental impacts for fleet readiness, the defense industrial base, and taxpayers, and hamper soldiers’ abilities to carry critical payloads,” the company warned in a statement sent in an email sent by spokesman Andrew Africk.

Defending the plant’s contracts kept former U.S. Reps. Patrick Meehan and Curt Weldon, both Pennsylvania Republicans, riding to the rescue during the past couple of decades to save Chinook upgrades and the construction of Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. A spokeswoman for freshman U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., whose district includes the plant, didn’t respond immediately to messages seeking comment.

McCarthy said military leaders had reviewed Chinook upgrades and hundreds of other programs before deciding what to cut. “Nothing was sacrosanct,” he said at Brookings. In all, he said, the Army cut or reduced 186 programs, including some at Army headquarters.

The retreat on Chinooks appears to have developed just this winter. “The Army announced in January it was set to award a contract for low-rate initial production of a maximum 14 CH-47 Block II aircraft” in fiscal 2021 and 2022, “but no award was made,” Inside Army, a publication that covers military contracting, reported earlier this month.

The Ridley plant completes work on about four Chinooks and one to two Ospreys per month, for the U.S. and also for allied military forces from countries including India, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. UAW local president Mike Tolassi was in a plant meeting and was unavailable for comment at midday Wednesday, his assistant said.

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At these sites, specialized veteran counselors — licensed mental health providers — will be available to provide “evidence-based, acute mental health services,” according to the news release issued Monday.

The other pilot sites include the Andrews Center Behavioral Healthcare System in Tyler, the Betty Hardwick Center in Abilene, the Bluebonnet Trails Community Services in Round Rock, the Burke Center in Nacogdoches, and the Heart of Texas Region MHMR in Waco.

The location of the pilot sites was determined by veteran population density, the availability of mental health services and need for those services.

“Veteran Counselors are filling an important role in addressing the mental health needs of our veteran population,” Sonja Gaines, HHSC’s intellectual disabilities and development and behavioral health services deputy executive director, stated in the release.

“This is a coordinated effort between both the Health and Human Services Commission and the Texas Veterans Commission.”

The veteran counselors, who were hired at the sites using existing program funding and “leveraging existing infrastructure,” are trained to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, and moral injury.

They will conduct evaluations and assessments for treatment planning; provide complex crisis intervention and stabilization to clients in psychological distress; and are also skilled in suicide prevention and intervention.

Anyone interested in taking advantage of these services can reach out to Tropical Texas Behavioral Health in Edinburg.

©2019 The Monitor (McAllen, Texas)
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Darlington entered a plea deal in a military court at Marine Corps Base Quantico in June 2015, pleading guilty to seven charges, including violating a protective order taken out against him by Campbell, strangling her "with a force likely to produce death" and inserting a loaded handgun into her mouth "while holding her down by the throat,"court papers state.

The decision Friday to send Darlington back to a re-entry management program was made by the commanding general of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune after a hearing held Monday on Campbell's request to have her ex-husband's suspended sentence reinstated.

The commanding general was not present, Campbell said, but made his decision based on the recommendation of a lieutenant colonel, who was present.

"I am livid. [Darlington is] being shown he can break the rules and all he gets is a slap on the wrist," Campbell said Tuesday.

In 2015, Darlington was dishonorably discharged from the Marine Corps and sentenced to 11 years in prison, with all but five suspended, after pleading guilty to the seven charges, which included domestic violence.

According to the plea deal, the six additional years were to be reinstated if Darlington committed any misconduct or violated any terms of suspension. There was also a protective order in place prohibiting Darlington from contacting Campbell or their children.

Campbell argues that he violated that order by sending her more than 300 letters from jail and committing multiple disciplinary infractions, including threatening guards and prisoners.

Campbell tried for two and a half years — aided by at least six different attorneys assigned to her by the Marine Corps' Victim's Legal Counsel program — to get the Marine Corps to hold a hearing to see whether Darlington violated the terms of the pretrial agreement.

In late February, she learned that Camp Lejeune had agreed to a hearing. After being postponed twice, it was held March 11.

Campbell said she requested to attend, either in person or via video.

"They said, 'No, it's not that kind of hearing,'" she said. "The lieutenant colonel said he was just there to check boxes."

She said the defense attorney also argued that she not be allowed to read the impact statement she wrote.

As Campbell listened to the hearing in the Marine Corps Base Quantico office of her attorney, she learned that Darlington's defense attorney had brought Darlington's father, boss, fiancée, future sister-in-law and a Catholic priest to give character statements. Darlington also spoke on his own behalf.

"Everyone spoke but me," Campbell said.

Campbell said her attorney requested that since character statements were given on Darlington's behalf, the convening authority should also consider her impact statement.

"The [lieutenant colonel] said that was reasonable," she said. "But I have no idea if he really read it."

In her impact statement, Campbell wrote that after Darlington's original trial, she took "solace in that I knew he would have to conduct himself accordingly [or violate the terms of the pretrial agreement]."

"The fact remained, though, that I was and am terrified of him," she continued. "In a controlled environment such as prison, though, I expected some level of freedom from him for the coming years. I was wrong. How quickly I was wrong.

"I believed that the Marine Corps would fight for injustices," she added. "I am asking the Marine Corps to hear me now.

To see the violations that Darlington has made; to see how these repeated violations affect me; and be the one to show Mr. Darlington that one cannot continually get away with breaking the rules, and face no punishment."

Campbell said that as far as she can see, her case is done.

"I can't change my case," she said. "But if I can prevent this from happening to another military wife, I will."

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and Rep. Abigail Spanberger have both reached out to Campbell in the past few weeks, she said, and she hopes she can work with them to bring forward legislation that might change how domestic violence is prosecuted in the military.

—
(c)2019 The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.)
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The man, whom The Palm Beach Post is not naming, died about 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner confirmed.

Citing privacy laws, the VA would not identify the man nor say which branch of service he’d served in, nor when, and would not provide any details about his death.

The suicide took place 15 days after a patient opened fire in the center’s emergency room, injuring two people. The medical center, at Military Trail and Blue Heron Boulevard, has not said what safeguards, if any, it would add as a result of that incident.

It also occurred as several VA centers across the nation have had to respond to patients who have taken their own lives. The Washington Post reported in January that 19 suicides occurred on VA campuses between October 2017 and November 2018; seven of those were in parking lots.

Kenita Gordon, a spokeswoman at the Riviera Beach center, said Tuesday in an email that the center’s staff has stopped two on-campus suicide attempts in the past five years.

“Patient deaths deeply affect the entire West Palm Beach VA Medical Center staff — especially the health care team members involved with a veteran’s care. Whenever an unforeseen patient death occurs, we conduct an internal review of the case,” Gordon said in an email.

“As a result of this incident, West Palm Beach VAMC is reviewing its processes and has changed certain patient monitoring protocols,” Gordon said. She did not elaborate.

The man’s mother declined Tuesday to provide details or to comment.

Gordon said the VA is working with the Defense Department and other agencies “to deploy suicide prevention programming that supports all current and former service members — even those who do not come to VA for care.”

The agency said any veteran in distress can call the veterans crisis line anytime at 800-273-8255, Option 1.

“One life lost to suicide is one too many,” Gordon said.

©2019 The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.)
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Though tariffs have taken a toll on jobs and confidence, Trump has tried to compensate with an infusion of military spending. The tank factory he will visit in Lima, operated by General Dynamics, nearly closed six years ago; Army officials told Congress that they didn’t need any more of the heavy M-1 Abrams tanks it produces because they are less geared toward modern wars against insurgents.

But Trump, who has increased military spending significantly, signed a spending bill authorizing more than $2 billion for the tank, adding hundreds of jobs to a town that long had been heavily dependent on the defense industry.

He also will hold a fundraiser in Canton, but is bypassing Lordstown and is hoping to shift the story line.

“The story of the day may be about how the Trump administration saved the Lima plant from a near-death experience under President Barack Obama,” Peter Navarro, a Trump trade adviser, wrote in an opinion piece published Tuesday in the New York Times.

Late last year, General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra cited Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, which have cost her company and Ford roughly $1 billion each, when announcing the closure of the company’s Lordstown plant in northeastern Ohio. The result was a loss of 1,600 jobs there, plus hundreds of other jobs at suppliers and related companies.

In recent tweets, Trump put pressure on GM to reopen the plant and blamed its closure on local United Auto Workers leader David Green, who heads the chapter that represents workers at the Lordstown plant.

“I want action on Lordstown fast,” the president tweeted. “Stop complaining and get the job done! 3.8% Unemployment!”

Trump’s re-election prospects would take a blow if he is not able to win Ohio, a long-time electoral bellwether that favored him in 2016. Ultimately, his success in the state in 2020 likely hinges more on local manufacturing jobs, which have been hurt by tariffs in his ongoing trade war with China, than the broader state of the nation’s overall economy.

Since he took office, Trump has seen his net approval rating in Ohio drop by 19 percentage points, according to a Morning Consult tracking poll.

While the national unemployment rate did drop to 3.8 percent in February, Ohio’s economy, which was hit harder by the recession, lagged behind. In January, the most recent month for which data is available, the state’s jobless rate was at 4.7 percent, continuing an uneven recovery that began before Trump took office. Job growth in manufacturing has picked up, as it has nationally, but service employment growth has been weak. If factory closures continue, the overall picture could sour.

©2019 Los Angeles Times
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Now, one of those is threatening the other.

Contamination seeping from the Camp Grayling National Guard base is polluting local lakes and groundwater and is threatening the iconic Au Sable River — an internationally recognized trout-fishing mecca and one of the largest tributaries of Lake Huron.

Known as PFAS compounds, the chemicals bioaccumulate in humans and other animals and don’t break down in the environment. They’ve been linked to diseases like cancer, thyroid disease, hormone disruption, developmental problems in children and more.

Groundwater pollution isn’t good for the health of any community, but officials in Grayling and Oscoda — a downstream Au Sable River town also struggling with PFAS — are concerned the persistent nature of PFAS also will manifest as a long-term economic drain.

“Would you buy a house somewhere your well could be contaminated?” said Lacey Stephan, the Grayling Township manager.

The concern is not unique. Across Michigan, municipalities are now either budgeting for PFAS response where chemicals are found in drinking water or wastewater, or are casting a worried eye as the number of contaminated sites continues to climb.

The majority of contaminated sites in Michigan are linked to industrial sources, both active businesses and others that folded up long ago. But in Grayling and Oscoda, the contamination was caused by the military, meaning the U.S. government is the polluter.

That presents unique challenges, as the military has fought Michigan’s efforts to enforce state environmental laws by invoking sovereign immunity protections, and has been lobbying the White House to raise the threshold for remedial action by more than six times its present level.

In Oscoda and Grayling, the military has provided either bottled water, filters or municipal hookups to some properties, but local officials say more homes need that than the Department of Defense is willing to acknowledge. That’s forcing both communities to shoulder the burden of expanding infrastructure to provide PFAS-free water themselves.

In Grayling Township, officials are now taking steps to build an entirely new municipal water system to serve residences with drinking water contaminated by PFAS either at levels below what the military considers worrisome enough to warrant spending tax dollars to fix, or outside the existing regulatory framework for the class of so-called “forever chemicals.”

According to state data, PFAS were detected in the water at 565 homes around the Grayling Army Airfield and nearby Lake Margrethe, but only about 20 of them were above the Environmental Protection Agency advisory level of 70 parts per trillion for PFOS and PFOA, which are only two of numerous PFAS compounds showing up in test results.

The EPA stands behind that threshold, but a growing number of public health advocates, independent scientists and state toxicologists argue that it isn’t protective enough, citing human studies and an analysis by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) that suggests levels should be much lower and cover more compounds.

In both communities, a PFAS chemical called PFHxS has been found in many samples. The long-chain compound is closely associated with fluorochemical plumes caused by the type of aqueous film-forming foam used for decades by the military to train for emergencies.

According to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, PFHxS has been detected in 369 residential wells around Grayling, ranging in concentration up to 1,040 ppt.

Neither the state nor the federal government regulates PFHxS, although there’s been some groundwork laid toward that outcome. That means, for now, neither the DEQ nor the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can force the Department of Defense to take action to address PFHxS found at any level in drinking water.

“When contaminants aren’t defined as ‘hazardous’ by state or federal law, that make it much more challenging,” said Oday Salim, director of the Environmental Law & Sustainability Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School.

The DEQ has some options it could pursue to designate contaminants like PFHxS as hazardous, but those are not quick or simple steps to take.

“The state would have to make a scientific assessment that those substances satisfy the characteristics of a hazardous substances even if they’re not already listed,” Salim said.

“That’s a hurdle.”

In Oscoda, local officials estimate it could cost $10 million to bring municipal water to all areas affected by contamination from the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base.

The Air Force has connected a couple of Oscoda homes to municipal water, but, as in Grayling, the military won’t run pipes to homes that test below 70 ppt. That has forced local officials to seek grants and to cobble together money to try to get the job done.

“We’re sinking a lot of time into handling this problem when we’ve got other issues to handle,” said Aaron Weed, Oscoda Township supervisor.

Weed gets daily phone calls about the PFAS problem and said it’s eaten up between 30 percent and 90 percent of his work time during the past couple of years. As a single issue, it’s an order of magnitude larger than anything else happening in the township, he said.

Oscoda Township has an annual budget of between $6 million and $7 million, most of which goes to fund local fire services and law enforcement. Weed said real estate values are falling and the township is having trouble enticing businesses to invest in the area due to the contamination.

“Really, the Department of Defense needs to take care of this problem,” Weed said. Instead, “they seem to be trying to avoid as much (responsibility) as possible.”

“My impression is the Air Force legal team feels that if they contribute something to helping Oscoda, then they have to do that everywhere.”

“We’re not asking to be treated special,” Weed said. “We just want the problem taken care of.”

The military’s rigid adherence to minimum requirements for taking action has bred some resentment among those in a military-friendly area. Some must juggle feelings of support for the armed forces with frustration at the Pentagon, which has pinched pennies and generally has moved at a sluggish pace when investigating or cleaning up contamination.

Reluctance to allocate more resources to Michigan are seen as reflective of budgeting concerns as PFAS contamination mounts at current and former bases across the globe.

Stephan said many in Grayling want Congress to allocate additional funding for military cleanups rather than redirect conventional defense spending. Many also are frustrated the military isn’t more generous with the money it does have.

“They are responsive, but when you start bringing up the cost of covering this expense, it’s like running into a brick wall,” Stephan said.

In Grayling, officials are concerned that as work progresses, the military won’t install water system mains large enough to serve more than the small number of homes on its list.

Stephan and township leaders began meeting with engineers this month to develop a feasibility study on a new municipal system; a $15,000 expenditure that could double if they want to use the study to pursue state or federal grants to defray the project cost.

If the system ends up serving homes around Lake Margrethe, which is a couple of miles west of the affected homes around the airfield, Stephan said the total cost could increase.

A new water system could mean an increase in property taxes, which is sure to be unpopular.

“People don’t make a lot of money up here,” he said. “This is northern Michigan. We try to do everything we can to not spend their money.”

This story was reported in conjunction with Detroit Public Television’s Great Lakes Now initiative and was produced with the financial assistance of the Ravitch Fiscal Reporting Program at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York.

©2019 MLive.com, Walker, Mich.
Visit MLive.com, Walker, Mich. at www.mlive.com.
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It's pulling the troops away from President Donald Trump's border protection efforts and devoting them to fire protection, another area where Trump has been critical of California's Democratic officials — even repeatedly threatening to cut off federal disaster funding.

Starting in April, 110 California National Guard troops will receive 11 days of training in using shovels, rakes and chain saws to help thin trees and brush, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Mike Mohler said.

They will be divided into five teams that will travel around the state working on forest management projects, mainly clearing or reducing trees and vegetation in an effort to deprive flames of fuel.

"They will be boots on the ground doing fuels projects alongside CalFire crews," Mohler said. "We've had them out for flood fighting, several different operations, but this would be the first time their mission would be fuels thinning and forest management."

They have helped fight fires before, however.

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the first in recent decades to deploy California National Guard troops as firefighters. That occurred on July 4, 2008, after lightning storms sparked hundreds of fires, Guard Lt. Col. Jonathan Shiroma said.

He referred questions about the latest effort to CalFire, which is directing the Guard's new assignment.

The training is similar for firefighting and fire protection. Mohler said the troops also will receive some training in forest management, "so they're not just out there cutting brush" but understand why they're doing what they're doing.

For instance, firefighting crews generally cut fire lines down to mineral earth during active wildfires, while fuels management crews often do less-intensive thinning of trees and chaparral to slow advancing flames.

That often involves creating fuel breaks. They can range from stripping away all woody vegetation on wide strips of land to thinning larger trees and removing shorter trees, brush and debris to discourage fires from climbing into treetops and jumping from tree to tree.

Critics say the work damages forests and can be useless against wind-driven fires, like the one that jumped a river to rain embers on the Sierra Nevada foothills community of Paradise last year, killing 85 people in and around the Northern California city of 27,000 people.

"CalFire is taking the Trump approach, logging the forest and weakening critical environmental protections, and that's the exact opposite of what we need to be doing," Center for Biological Diversity scientist Shaye Wolf said.

She said the better approach is to make homes more fire resistant while pruning vegetation immediately surrounding homes.

CalFire this month listed 35 fuel-reduction projects it wants to start immediately, covering more than 140 square miles (362 square kilometers) — double the acreage in previous years. But state officials estimate 23,438 square miles (60,704 square kilometers) of California forestland need thinning or other restoration.

"It's not a problem that's going to get fixed overnight," Mohler said.

Such thinning operations are getting more attention in recent years, with the U.S. Forest Service estimating last month that 18 million trees died in California over the last year.

The agency estimated that more than 147 million trees have died across nearly 15,625 square miles (40,469 square kilometers) during a drought that began in 2010, while about 1.5 million dead trees have been cut down.

Moreover, investigations have often blamed recent wildfires on utilities not doing a good enough job of clearing vegetation around power lines and equipment. Democratic state Sen. Bill Dodd of Napa has proposed legislation that would require CalFire to tell utilities which trees and brush to remove and then inspect the work.

Aside from Guard troops, CalFire also is creating 10 civilian fuels management crews this year. The 10-member crews could help with initial fire suppression if need be but will primarily reduce fuels, Mohler said.

"It's going to be a pretty amazing sight to see as these crews get out there on the ground," he said. "There's hundreds of, unfortunately, Paradises cross the state, (so) the public needs to understand this."

“It’s heartbreaking, you know, for everyone that has fought in the war; it is very disrespectful,” said Southie resident Mary Ellen Sarro. “… This is history and it’s a real shame.”

State police said the vandalism was reported Monday about 11:30 a.m. and troopers found “some type of oil” splashed or poured onto the memorial. The giant, stone slabs — which sit near Castle Island — hold the 216 names of soldiers from South Boston and Dorchester who were killed during World War II.

Tom Troy said all he felt was anger as he was watching the news Monday night and saw his uncle’s name desecrated by the vandals. He called the act “cowardly.”

“When I first saw it, I was angry,” Troy said. “You almost wish you had seen the perpetrator, caught up with them and squared up.”

“It is an awful thing they did. To see the beautiful memorial, it is tough to believe someone would actually do this,” he added.

His uncle, Eddie Troy, was beloved by his family and neighbors. A South Boston High graduate and one of seven children, Troy joined the Army Air Force, his nephew said.

During the war, his plane was shot down over Belgium and, assigned to retrieving the craft’s black box, he was last to leave the plane and ultimately perished.

“He was a live wire. He was pretty funny and when he died, it was tough for my father, especially,” Troy said. “And to have his memorial desecrated now is terrible.”

Crews were at the memorial Monday and Tuesday, trying different solutions to clean the oil off. Adriana Correa from Select Demo Services said they had tried vinegar with baking soda, soap and water; Comet; power washers; and more, without luck.

“Different people have tried different ways and nothing is working,” Correa said. “It is good people are trying. People care because for them, it is very important.”

“It’s terrible, it’s like going to a cemetery and seeing someone’s headstone desecrated,” said Boston resident Dennis Martin. His father, Thomas, had a bench at the memorial, dedicated to him, that was unharmed.

“I’m pretty sad, it is terrible when people do things like this,” he added.

But 22 kindergartners from the Oliver Hazard Perry School took the opportunity to visit and to learn about respect, sacrifice and honor. Judy Nee said she decided to take her students down to the memorial as a teaching moment.

“We try to be civic-minded and teach things that go beyond the ABCs. … It was the perfect opportunity to talk about sacrifice, why the names are there, talk about bad people and also how we can overcome bad things,” Nee said. “It was a lesson in empowerment and honor and despite the fact someone tried to ruin it, it won’t keep us from remembering.”

While there, they posted American flags, recited the Pledge of Allegiance and made crayon rubbings of the names on the memorial. She said even though the students were young, they were able to recognize that it was a serious matter and to learn about Southie’s history.

“It is important to teach empathy and growth in their hearts and not just their minds,” Nee said.

A spokesperson with the state police said the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information or tips should call 617-740-7710.

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