Air Force commander grapples with servicemember’s suicide

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — While most people hunkered down for the night as a typhoon pounded the Tokyo area, an American airman plunged to his death from the 11th floor of a nearby hotel. Before dawn, Yokota base commander Col. Mark August received one of those calls that almost always bring a different kind of turmoil.

August learned he had lost a man — the first since he rose to command level 15 years earlier.

 

“When you get that phone call first thing in the morning — no one wants to get it, but when it happens, it triggers a very specific response, an AFI-driven response,” August told Stars and Stripes a few weeks after the death last fall.

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Air Force Tries to Deal With Suicide Rate

Air Force leaders at all levels must fight the problem of suicides within the service by developing a culture of healthy airmen across the board, said the service’s top enlisted man Thursday.

“We’ve got to talk about” the problem of airman suicides openly, look at suicide rates, discuss lessons learned from suicides and even acknowledge “saves,” said Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, James Roy, during an April 5 luncheon on Capitol Hill.

“Some have said, don’t talk about it, I just throw that aside,” said Roy. “When somebody commits suicide, some people would say that I shouldn’t be sharing the [suicide] numbers the way I share them. Why not? How do I tell what happened last April or last March if I don’t show you where we are today? How do I compare the two?”

The Air Force lost 99 airmen in 2010 to suicides, 90 in 2011 and 35 so far in 2012, making suicide the service’s leading cause of death, according to slides presented by Roy during his presentation.

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Court-martial for 3 NCOs in wake of EOD death

By Markeshia Ricks - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Oct 31, 2011 13:15:46 EDT

It was supposed to be a routine detonation of unserviceable ordnance and a morale booster for a couple of dozen troops at Joint Base Balad, Iraq.

Instead it turned into a nearly 30-minute nightmare that left Senior Airman James Hansen dead and one soldier severely wounded.

Now, 13 months after the accident, three noncommissioned officers have been charged in Hansen’s death.

Two of the NCOs — Master Sgt. Garet Vannes and Tech. Sgt. Gregory Divito Jr. — face dereliction of duty and negligent homicide charges. Tech. Sgt. Matthew Hefti has been charged with dereliction of duty and negligent homicide.

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Recovering From My Service to Our Nation

This is an account of an airman whose military career was ruined by a rape by a "fellow" member of the Air Force. 

Read the entire story here.

Minot AFB Clandestine Nukes 'Oddities'

By Lori Price, http://www.legitgov.org/
Updated: 01 May 2010


Minot AFB airman identified --The base Safety Office is 'investigating' the accident. 01 May 2010 Officials at Minot Air Force Base have identified the airman who died Thursday after being struck in the head by a training missile during routine training at the base. Senior Airman Richard Allan Gallelli Jr., 22, was a member of the 17th Munitions Squadron, said 2nd Lt. Kidron Farnell, deputy chief of Public Affairs at the Minot base. Gallelli had been in the Air Force for three years and three months.

Minot Air Force Base Airman Killed --Internal investigation underway 29 Apr 2010 The Minot Air Force Base says one of their Airmen was killed in a training exercise around midnight. In a press release officials say a male Airman from the 17th Munitions Squadron was struck in the head while at work, and died of injuries soon after. They are not releasing the name of the Airman. A spokeswoman from the Minot Air Force Base says cases like this are extremely rare and it has been at least ten years [?!?] since something like this has taken place. [*Math check.* See: Minot base crew commander found dead --Cause of death unclear 03 Feb 2009.]

The following section was compiled by 'The Pundit.'

Since the Minot story broke a week ago about the missing nukeclandestine operation from Minot, we have the following (for those who are paying attention):

1. All six people listed below are from Minot Airforce base

2. All were directly involved as loaders or as pilots

3. All are now dead

4. All within the last 7 days in 'accidents' [Not all of them --LRP]

http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=10465

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070915/BREAKINGNEWS/70915012

http://www.kxmc.com/News/161562.asp

http://www.kxmc.com/getArticle.asp?ArticleId=140988

http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/07/20/news/state/136489.txt

http://www.komotv.com/news/local/9679367.html

Silly me, seeing more than there is to this story. I guess this is just another coincidence.

But no doubt now that there will be more coincidences in the near future because as I have stated before, you need about fourteen signatures to get an armed nuke onto a B-52, and they may have told their wives and friends.

"The Pundit"

http://www.legitgov.org/minot_afb_nukes_oddities.html

--submitted by Patti Woodard

See also:  http://cryptogon.com/?p=1299 and http://www.e-thepeople.org/article/528101/view?viewtype=