Army Released March Suicide Data

The Army released suicide data today for the month of March. Among active-duty soldiers, there were seven potential suicides: none have been confirmed as suicide, and seven remain under investigation. For February 2011, the Army reported eight potential suicides among active-duty soldiers. Since the release of that report, one case has been confirmed as suicide, and seven cases remain under investigation.

During March 2011, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were eight potential suicides: none have been confirmed as suicide, and eight remain under investigation. For February 2011, among that same group, there were eight total potential suicides. Of those, three were confirmed as suicides and five are pending determination of the manner of death.

"Army efforts to improve suicide prevention awareness, education and support that is readily available to all members of the Army family continue to be of paramount importance to senior Army leadership. Informed and engaged leaders at every level help foster a sense of responsibility in soldiers, Army civilians and family members." said Col. Chris Philbrick, deputy director, Army Health Promotion, Risk Reduction Task Force. "Leaders will reduce the stigma associated with seeking help by promoting positive behavioral health opportunities that include physical, emotional, social, family and spiritual well-being," Philbrick said.

Soldiers and families in need of crisis assistance can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Trained consultants are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and can be contacted by dialing 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or by visiting their website at http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org .

The Army's comprehensive list of Suicide Prevention Program information is located at http://www.preventsuicide.army.mil .

Army leaders can access current health promotion guidance in newly revised Army Regulation 600-63 (Health Promotion) at: http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r600_63.pdf and Army Pamphlet 600-24 (Health Promotion, Risk Reduction and Suicide Prevention) at http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/p600_24.pdf .

Suicide prevention training resources for Army families can be accessed at http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/suicide/training_sub.asp?sub_cat=20 (requires Army Knowledge Online access to download materials).

Information about Military OneSource is located at http://www.militaryonesource.com or by dialing the toll-free number 1-800-342-9647for those residing in the continental United States. Overseas personnel should refer to the Military OneSource website for dialing instructions for their specific location.

Information about the Army's Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program is located at http://www.army.mil/csf/ .

The Defense Center for Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) Outreach Center can be contacted at 1-866-966-1020, via electronic mail at Resources@DCoEOutreach.org and at http://www.dcoe.health.mil .

The website for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is http://www.afsp.org/ and the Suicide Prevention Resource Council site is found at http://www.sprc.org/index.asp .

The website for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors is http://www.TAPS.org and they can be reached at 1-800-959-TAPS (8277).

U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)

On the Web: http://www.defense.gov/releases/
Media Contact: +1 (703) 697-5131/697-5132
Public Contact: http://www.defense.gov/landing/questions.aspx or +1 (703) 428-0711 +1

Source: DoD Announcement, verbatim

McChrystal resurrected? Not so fast, says Pat Tillman’s mom.

April 14th, 2011 | Outside the wire | Posted by Joe Gould



Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a hero fired for a minor flap, is brought back into the fold, made useful again as the co-chair of a White House initiative on military families.

All is well with the world again, right?

Not according to Pat Tillman’s mom.

Read the entire story here.

Lawmakers push to protect sex assault victims

By Phillip Swarts - Medill News Service
Posted : Wednesday Apr 13, 2011 17:34:10 EDT

Eight months after accusing a noncommissioned officer of sexual assault, Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who was pregnant, was killed by that NCO and buried in his backyard.

Lauterbach’s death in 2007 has brought increased attention to the issue of sexual assault in the military.

Read the entire story here.

2 US servicemen mistakenly killed by drone attack in Afghanistan

NBC: Pair died in missile airstrike in an apparent case of mistaken identity

By Jim Miklaszewski
Chief Pentagon correspondent

NBC News NBC News
updated 4/11/2011 2:04:23 PM ET 2011-04-11T18:04:23
WASHINGTON — A U.S. Marine reservist and a Navy corpsman were killed in a drone airstrike in Afghanistan last week in an apparent case of friendly fire, U.S. military officials tell NBC News.

Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith and Navy Corpsman Benjamin Rast were reportedly killed Wednesday by a Hellfire missile fired from a U.S. Air Force Predator in what appears to be a case of mistaken identity, NBC reported. Smith and Rast were part of a Marine unit moving in to reinforce fellow Marines under heavy fire from enemy forces outside Sangin in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.

The Marines under fire were watching streaming video of the battlefield being fed to them by an armed Predator overhead. They saw a number of "hot spots," or infrared images, moving in their direction. Apparently believing that those "hot spots" were the enemy, they called in a Hellfire missile strike from the Predator.

It's believed that this is the first time that U.S. service members have been killed by a Predator in a friendly fire incident.

Smith, 26, of Arlington, Texas, was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division out of Houston. Rast, 23, was assigned to the 2nd Marine Division out of San Diego.

The U.S. military is investigating the incident. Military officials say the families of both service members have been informed of the possibility this was a friendly fire incident.

© 2010 msnbc.com Reprints
Read the original here.

War casualty on the home front

A poster boy for suicide prevention, Houstonian becomes another statistic
By LINDSAY WISE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
April 9, 2011, 7:15AM

Marine veteran Clay Hunt had a tattoo on his arm that quoted Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien: "Not all those who wander are lost."

"I think he was a lot more philosophical about life than a lot of us are, but trying to search for some inner peace and the meaning of life, what was the most important thing," said his father, Stacy Hunt.

His son's quest ended last week when he took his own life at his Sugar Land apartment.

The 28-year-old had narrowly escaped death in Iraq four years ago, when a sniper's bullet missed his head by inches. But he wrestled with post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor's guilt over the deaths of four friends in his platoon who weren't so lucky.

"Two were lost in Iraq, and the other two were killed in Afghanistan," said his mother, Susan Selke. "When that last one in Afghanistan went down, it just undid him."

In many ways, Hunt's death is all too familiar: the haunted veteran consumed by a war he can't stop fighting.

Suicides among Texans younger than 35 who served in the military jumped from 47 in 2006 to 66 in 2009 — an increase of 40 percent, according to state records.

The problem seems increasingly intractable. Efforts by the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs to stop the alarming rise in military suicides nationwide through training and screening have had limited success.



Read the entire story here.

Military Injustice: Going Light on Murder

THE RUSS REPORT
Katharine Russ

The first of two trials surrounding the murder of 19 year-old Specialist (SPC) Morganne McBeth in July 2010 began Monday in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. SPC Tyler Cain, 21, of North Carolina, charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice, was found guilty and now faces demotion to the rank of private and 45 days in prison. Cain will be allowed to stay in the Army.
Read more...

Podcast of Radio Interview with Pam Baragona

NON COMBAT DEATHS
WITH DONNA JANECZKO AND DOMINIC BARAGONA

http://podcast.talktainmentradio.com/talk/2881726.mp3

The Busted Moral Compass: Reflections on "The Kill Team" and the Decay of Military Leadership

Cilla McCain has written an article about Murder in the Military and about the case of Anthony Wilder.

Read the story here.

KBR wants Iraqi law used in electrocution case

PITTSBURGH — Attorneys for Houston-based military contractor KBR Inc. have asked a federal judge in Pittsburgh to apply Iraqi law to a lawsuit filed by the mother of a Pittsburgh-area soldier who was electrocuted while showering at a U.S. military base in Iraq.

U.S. District Judge Nora Berry Fischer asked attorneys for both sides to file written arguments before she’ll decide the issue.

At a hearing Tuesday, she frankly acknowledged what she believed was the reason for the motion. “The big nut is whether or not you can apply for punitive damages,” the judge said. “You can’t get punitives in Iraq.”

Read the entire story here.

More on the Patrick Rust Case

Watch the full episode. See more Public Eye with Jeff Cole.

An interview with the Jefferson County Sheriff, the lead detective in the case, and Crime Wire Consultant and private investigator Bill Sullivan, was aired over the weekend on the local Watertown, New York PBS station. If you'd like to see it, the link is http://www.wpbstv.org/COVE_Images/PublicEye-April-01-2011.htm

Widow says Army denies capt. was murdered

From The Army Times:

 

Sues for trial record after accused was acquitted in ’08

 

By Joe Gould - Staff writer

Posted : Monday Mar 28, 2011 5:01:29 EDT

 

The widow of a West Point graduate killed in Iraq says the Army is adding to her anguish by denying her husband was murdered.

Siobhan Esposito says the Army, after it lost the capitol murder trial against her husband’s accused killer, is denying her husband’s death was by murder to deny her a record of the proceeding.

Capt. Phillip Esposito, a company commander in Tikrit, died there in 2005. Then-Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez, a subordinate of Esposito’s, was charged in his death and acquitted in a 2008 court-martial at Fort Bragg, N.C.

“To be frank, I find the Army’s denial ridiculous and offensive,” Siobhan Esposito, of Suffern, N.Y., said in an email to Army Times. “I went to court with the Army to obtain documents relating to my husband’s murder, and I am now compelled to argue that he was the victim of murder.”

Siobhan Esposito’s mission to obtain court records in her husband’s death will proceed after U.S. District Judge John D. Bates denied the Army’s request earlier this month to dismiss her freedom-of-information lawsuit.

She asserted in her lawsuit against the Army that her husband was murdered in 2005 when a Claymore mine was placed in the window of his office. The Army, in its response, conceded only that he “died while in his office and on active military duty in Tikrit, Iraq.”

Esposito, in a blog she maintains, called the denial “absurd on its face, offensive to Phillip’s memory, and disrespectful to my grief and the grief of Phillip’s family.”

“Phillip did not merely die in his office as if from a cold, a slip, or a spoiled MRE,” she wrote.
Jurors heard from witnesses at the court-martial who said Martinez threatened to kill Phillip Esposito.
Operations officer 1st Lt. Louis E. Allen, of Milford, Pa., was also killed. All three men were part of the 42nd Infantry Division of the New York National Guard, based in Troy, N.Y.

During the trial, witnesses testified that Martinez said he felt violent urges toward his commander, who had dressed him down over his handling of the unit’s supply room, but there were no eyewitnesses directly linking Martinez to the two men’s deaths.

Martinez said after the trial that he was “very, very innocent.”

In an attempt to expose flaws in the criminal investigation and court-martial, Siobhan Esposito requested from the Army a complete transcript and audio recordings of the trial. She filed her lawsuit Jan. 19 in a Washington, D.C., federal court after the Army denied her request.

“I will not be deterred in my pursuit of justice on behalf of our daughter, my husband’s memory and myself,” she said. “My husband’s murder demands transparency and accountability, and I shall not rest until I have it.”

The Army’s reply to the lawsuit argued that Esposito is not legally entitled to the records she requested. It notes that it already released 1,700 pages of edited transcripts, and that to review and release the 408 hours of audio recordings would take months.

Claire Whitaker, the assistant U.S. attorney arguing the case on behalf of the Army, through a spokesman declined to comment.

Bates ordered both parties to submit a briefing schedule to the court by March 25.

Army Slow to Act as Crime-lab Worker Falsified, Botched Tests

WASHINGTON — For nearly three years, the military held the key to Roger House's exoneration and didn't tell him: A forensics examiner had botched a crucial lab test used in the Navy lieutenant's court-martial

 

Read the entire story by clicking here.

Report shows death of local airman the result of bomb experts not following protocol

Read the entire story here.

Army Released February Suicide Data

            The Army released suicide data today for the month of February.  Among active-duty soldiers, there were eight potential suicides:  none have been confirmed as suicide, and eight remain under investigation.  For January 2011, the Army reported 15 potential suicides among active-duty soldiers.  Since the release of that report, five cases have been confirmed as suicide, and 10 cases remain under investigation.
            During February 2011, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were eight potential suicides: one has been confirmed as a suicide, and seven remain under investigation.  For January 2011, among that same group, there were eight total suicides.  Of those, two were confirmed as suicides and six are pending determination of the manner of death.
            "Efforts to mitigate risk and improve the health of the force demand decisive engagement at every echelon.  The complexity of suicide demands the need for a coordinated effort by every member across the Army to reduce the negative outcomes of high-risk behavior, risk-related deaths and suicides," said Col. Chris Philbrick, deputy director, Army Health Promotion, Risk Reduction Task Force.
           Soldiers and families in need of crisis assistance can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.  Trained consultants are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and can be contacted by dialing 1-800-273-TALK begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              1-800-273-TALK      end_of_the_skype_highlighting (8255) or by visiting their website at http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ .
            The Army's comprehensive list of Suicide Prevention Program information is located at http://www.preventsuicide.army.mil/ .
            Army leaders can access current health promotion guidance in newly revised Army Regulation 600-63 (Health Promotion) at: http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r600_63.pdf and Army Pamphlet 600-24 (Health Promotion, Risk Reduction and Suicide Prevention) at http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/p600_24.pdf .
            Suicide prevention training resources for Army families can be accessed at http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/suicide/training_sub.asp?sub_cat=20 (requires Army Knowledge Online access to download materials).
            Information about Military OneSource is located at http://www.militaryonesource.com/ or by dialing the toll-free number 1-800-342-9647 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              1-800-342-9647      end_of_the_skype_highlighting for those residing in the continental U.S.  Overseas personnel should refer to the Military OneSource Web site for dialing instructions for their specific location.
            Information about the Army's Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program is located at http://www.army.mil/csf/ .
            The Defense Center for Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) Outreach Center can be contacted at 1-866-966-1020 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              1-866-966-1020      end_of_the_skype_highlighting, via electronic mail at Resources@DCoEOutreach.org and at www.dcoe.health.mil .
            The website for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is http://www.afsp.org/ , and the Suicide Prevention Resource Council site is found at http://www.sprc.org/index.asp .

Suicide rate triples for female soldiers at war

But Army data show male counterparts’ risk is higher

By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Thursday Mar 17, 2011 23:09:45 EDT

 

The suicide rate for female soldiers triples when they go to war, according to the first round of preliminary data from an Army study.

Read the entire story by clicking here.

Annual DoD Reports on Sexual Assault in the Military

You will find the 2010 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military, as well as earlier annual reports by clicking here.

Civilian Police and Non-combat Death Investigations, Part Two

What Would Dr. Quincy Do?

The first TV series about the use of forensics to solve crimes by scientific methods was Quincy, M.E, which aired from 1976 – 1983.  It was a huge hit.  Jack Klugman played the crusading forensic pathologist, who had a tendency to perseverate (and make idealistic speeches) when working on finding cause of death.  The police were usually a few ticks behind in the investigations.  They tended to jump to false conclusions.  It was Quincy’s job to use the available technology to prove or disprove the theories of the police as to cause of death.  The public was persuaded that this was the proper and prevalent practice in the United States whenever someone died of suspicious or unknown causes.  Dr. Quincy was the symbol of integrity and justice.

Currently, the general popularity of the new TV series like CSI, NCIS, Crossing Jordan, Body of Proof, etc. brings gory pseudo realistic forensics into the homes of the American Public.  Again, these are very big television programs which lead us all to believe that whiz bang technology can pinpoint cause of death as well as circumstances and place of death.  We all believe, from watching these series, that each and every suspicious death that occurs in the US is thoroughly investigated with the very newest technology.

We are SO wrong about that.  In most of the cases I’ll talk about here nothing as basic as fingerprints were taken from the crime scenes, let alone other types of forensic evidence.  The recent PBS Frontline program, Postmortem showed that most elected rural coroners in the US are not forensic pathologists or doctors of any kind and that facilities for the examination and storage of bodies is often non-existent.

Our current fascination with forensics in the US is ironic in that large political factions of our country have expressed a distrust and a rejection of science.  I can only wonder if this is the basis for the dichotomy between our entertainment choices and the reality of crime detection in the US.

Stephen Killian

MSSR Stephen Killian was in the Navy.  His 1999 death occurred, ironically, in the home of the original CSI series:  Las Vegas, Nevada.  He was in the Navy, so you’d think that NCIS, the Naval Criminal Investigation Service, would also be involved in his death investigation.  That proved not to be true.

NCIS is the primary law enforcement and counter-intelligence arm of the US Department of the Navy.  “Types of crimes investigated by NCIS include rape, child physical and sexual abuse, burglary and robbery, theft of government and personal property, and homicide. NCIS also has responsibility for investigating any non-combat death involving a naval service member where the cause of death cannot be medically attributable to disease or natural causes. “ 

Furthermore, according to their website:  “NCIS special agents, intelligence analysts and security specialists routinely work with local, state, federal and foreign law enforcement to address criminal incidents, identify and mitigate threats to U.S. and forces and assets, and pursue joint proactive operations.”

 If you’ve ever watched the TV series, you may believe that NCIS has access to advanced technology comparable to that showcased in the CSI series.  Yet, in reality, neither the Las Vegas police nor NCIS did much in the way of investigation.

In fact, in the three cases I’ll profile in this part of my discussion of Civilian Police and Non-combat Death Investigations, you will see that NCIS plays a decidedly secondary role in the death investigations of two members of the US Navy and one member of the US Marine Corps.  They each died outside of their assigned military bases, and were, therefore considered the responsibility of civilian police where investigation was concerned.

In Stephen’s case, according to his mother, Sonya, the civilian police did a cursory investigation of his death by hanging, immediately labeling it a suicide, despite some very suspicious circumstances.   There was no spectacular CSI investigation and no “Dr. Quincy” to insist on proper assessment of the body to make sure that Stephen wasn’t murdered.

Sonya was denied copies of the crime scene photos by the Las Vegas police.   They said that they destroyed investigation files, including the evidence, in July 1999, two months after Stephen died, as they considered the case closed.

Thomas Traylor

AOC Thomas Traylor was a Navy Aviation Ordinance Chief on active duty stationed at the Weapons Testing Squadron, Naval Station, China Lake, CA.   On December 6th 1998, he was found dead, in rural Inyokern, CA, from a gunshot wound to the chest. The cause of death was listed as suicide.

Thomas Traylor was a kind-hearted, soft-spoken career Navy man who joined up in 1983.  He was scheduled to retire in five years.

The Navy pretty much left Traylor’s death investigation to the Kern County, California, police.  The immediate conclusion was suicide.  Motivation was assigned to various rumors concerning his marriage.  This is usually the tack taken by NCIS in any investigations of non-combat deaths:  find a motive to shore up the initial “cause of death” and that’s the end of it.  

Charolette Traylor, who had been away tending to an elderly relative, was not immediately informed of Traylor’s death.  Her pleas for information were ignored for long periods of time.  Like many military family members, she eventually started her own investigation, employing investigators and having a second autopsy done.

If you click on the link to AOC Traylor above and read her account, you will see that private forensics investigators concluded that Traylor could not have shot himself in his vehicle.  There are many intriguing clues which were left at the scene.  The crime scene photos, which are usually difficult for the family to obtain, were key in making forensics findings.

It is truly unfortunate that “Dr. Quincy” wasn’t in Kern County, California to use the forensic clues left behind to do a thorough investigation.  It is also sad that the Navy had so little regard for one of their own.

Kirk Vanderbur

If any case would give cause to skepticism about “official” cause of death, it would be that of Kirk Vanderbur.

2^nd Lt. Kirk Charles Vanderbur was found dead February 17, 1992 at a private gun range in Hubert, NC, near Camp Lejeune.  The Sheriff of Onslow County, NC, Ed Brown was the civilian police authority responsible for investigating Kirk’s death.  He is the current Sheriff of Onslow County, North Carolina.

Onslow County has been the setting for other less than straight forward non-combat deaths of Marines, including LCpl. Maria Lauterbach, and LCpl. Jonathan M. Outz, among others.

Kirk had gone to the shooting range on the afternoon of February 16^th.  Marines and soldiers who are serious about maintaining their shooting skills practice periodically, so this was not an unusual situation.  It is believed that there were actually two more individuals at the range that afternoon.  The manager was also on duty, but said that she did not see Kirk’s car in the parking lot when she left that evening.  His body wasn’t found until the next day.

Kirk’s parents, Lois and Gene Vanderbur, were told that Kirk accidentally blasted himself in the chest with birdshot, and then crawled 8 ½ to 10 feet to shoot himself in the head right between the eyes with a semiautomatic rifle.  The rifle was in contact with his hand when his body was found, although Lois stated that this weapon had quite a “kick” when fired and would likely have been thrust away from the body if events happened the way the police theorized.  Furthermore, the range provided waist-high tables on which weapons were placed, so she asks how the rifle got on the ground.  Where is Dr. Quincy when you need him?  Surely not in Onslow County, NC.

As the responders loaded Kirk’s body into the ambulance they noticed the abdominal wound and pulled up his sweatshirt, which pulled his internal organs out. Two days later, without even testing Vanderbur’s hands for gunshot residue, Sheriff Ed Brown decided the death was a suicide and the NCIS agreed.

Lois Vanderbur said “I think the sheriff botched the investigation, didn’t do a homicide investigation and I don’t think the Marine Corps cared”.

Gene Vanderbur wrote: “my son was murdered. I concluded this after a long search for information dealing with a conspiracy of combinations of silence, endless and continuous obfuscation by people in authority, denial of access to evidence, data and photographs, obvious lying, neglect in performance of minimum reasonable investigation, misdirection, shameless displays of arrogance, ignorance and/or more malfeasant actions.”

Kirk’s family has requested copies of the crime scene photos taken by NCIS, which were never delivered.

On February 14, 2011, I spoke on the phone with Major Frank Terwilliger of the Onslow Co., NC Sheriff's Department.  He said that they do not share investigation material because "they are not public records."   He said that a private investigator and NCIS investigators "came to the same conclusion" about Kirk's death being a suicide.  He did not want to say any more.

Lois says that the extent of NCIS’ investigation was to question people as to possible motivations for committing suicide.  No one was theorizing that being shot with two separate guns ten feet apart could have been homicide. 

Dr. Quincy would, at least, have used some science to rule out murder before suggesting suicide.

Donna Janeczko

For first time in decades, Arlington National Cemetery must bury multiple 'unknowns'

 By Christian Davenport
Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, March 7, 2011; 12:43 AM

When the remains of a Vietnam War soldier buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery were identified in 1998 using DNA, Pentagon officials proudly said that the days of interring service members as "Unknown" could well be over.

But now, for the first time in decades, the cemetery has multiple "unknowns" to bury - and it has itself to blame.

Read the entire story here.

Soldier's lawyers seeking money for crime scene expert

Lawyers for a soldier charged in the death of a fellow paratrooper in Iraq last year have asked for an expert to help reconstruct the crime scene.

Lawyers for Spc. Nicholas D. Bailey made the request to a military judge during a hearing Thursday on Fort Bragg.

Read the entire stort here.

Valley Family Buries Daughter Twice

PEORIA, Ariz. -- Linda Gillam still questions why her daughter died on a military base. She still wonders why no one was arrested in connection with her daughter's death.

But most of the time, she can't understand why the military treated her daughter's body with what she calls "disrespect."

• VIDEO: Military Practice Causes Family To Bury Their Only Child Twice

Read the entire story here.