Tag Archives: Army

Army Ranger believed to be unconscious salutes during Purple Heart ceremony

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Army Ranger Josh Hargis was unconscious, hooked to a breathing tube at a military hospital in Afghanistan after losing both his legs in battle last week.

But when the Purple Heart ceremony began at Hargis’ bedside, it turned out he was not unconscious, as doctors believed. Instead, he struggled with an attending doctor to raise his heavily bandaged hand to salute a commanding officer presenting him with the medal.

“I cannot impart on you the level of emotion that poured through the intensive care unit that day,” the commander wrote to the Ranger’s wife. “Grown men began to weep, and we were speechless at a gesture that speaks volumes about Josh’s courage and character.”

Read more at FOX News

Donald Trump says he’ll pay for fallen warrior burials cut by shutdown

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Billionaire Donald Trump has offered to pick up paying a “death gratuity” to families of four soldiers and a Marine who died in combat in Afghanistan over the weekend after the Pentagon announced it is suspending immediate payments to families of combat fatalities because of the government shutdown.

When service men and women are killed in combat, the Pentagon normally pays families $100,000 to cover funerals and the cost of families to travel to receive the remains of their loved ones.

The Pentagon suspended those payments after the government shutdown, stirring outrage on Capitol Hill.

Read more at BizPac Review

Ft. Hood soldier claims police violated his gun rights

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kcentv.com – KCEN HD – Waco, Temple, and Killeen
A Fort Hood soldier is fighting charges after he says police violated his gun rights, and he says they’re still being violated weeks later.

Army Master Sergeant and well known blogger CJ Grisham says he never should have been arrested and his guns never should have been taken away.

On March 16, Grisham was on a Boy Scout hike with his son on a country road in west Temple.

He had a loaded assault style rifle strapped across his chest.

It was legal for him to carry, but a concerned citizen called police.

His Lawyer Kurt Glass says, “This was not a populated area. SGT Grisham was not threatening anyone.”

Police say when their officer arrived, he tried to take Grisham’s gun for the course of the investigation, but that Grisham refused.

More at KCENTV.com

U.S. soldier accused of Afghan killings faces “sanity” review

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By Laura L. Myers

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Doctors opened a medical review Sunday on a U.S. soldier charged with killing 16 civilians, most of them women and children, near his Army post in Afghanistan in an effort to determine his state of mind at the time of the killings and ability to stand trial.

The review, known in the military as a “sanity board,” will be conducted by three doctors at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, and will be completed by May 1, according to a U.S. Army spokesman.

The hearing started on Sunday morning and is expected to continue for several days, base spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Gary Dangerfield said.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Robert Bales, a decorated veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan accused of gunning down the villagers in cold blood during two rampages through their family compounds in Kandahar province last March.

More at Yahoo! News