'Do Nice Things' is Doing Great Things for Our Troops

 Here's How You Can Support Our U.S. Troops  

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FOR VALENTINE'S DAY

Marines are professionally trained killers, but they're still human and they need love too. So if you'd like to send one of our troops a Valentine's Day card, here you go: 

Send a valentine to Marines in Afghanistan. Mail by January 21 to:

Do One Nice Thing, 149 S. Barrington Ave., #279, Los Angeles, CA  90049-3310

We'll include it in a care package filled with goodies.

SEND YOUR COUPONS TO MILITARY FAMILIES

Times are hard for all of us, including military famalies. You can send coupons from newspapers or any other sources to military families all over the world. Yes, there are some items a little cheaper on base than in the civilian grocery stores, but in these tough economic times, every penny counts...even at the Comissarry. Oh, yes, you can also send expired coupons (up to two months). The

Overseas Coupon Program is the organization coordinating "coupons for military families." Click on this link - Laura Harding-Maditz

A CUP OF JAVA FOR A SERVICE MEMBER

Did you know that for $2 you can send a personal message along with a hot cup of coffee to a deployed service member via Green Beans Coffee - Jennie Steele Little  

SEND A BIRTHDAY CAKE TO OUR TROOPS 

 at Bake Me a Wish. A portion of the proceeds go towards another cake to be donated to a military member- Ellen Chartrand

CARDS FOR WOUNDED SERVICE MEMBERS

Send a card to wounded Army soldiers at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. The LRMC is the first place wounded soldiers are transported to after they leave Iraq and Afghanistan. Nothing would make their day brighter than a heartfelt, cheerful message from their supports here at home:

Here’s the address:

MTD
Attn: Soldiers' Angels
CMR 402
APO AE 09180

The cost is the same as mailing domestically.

If You Just Want to Say Thanks to a service member, do it with an ecard. 

ADOPT-A-PLATOON: Did you know you can adopt a deployed military platoon or become a pen pal to a soldier? If you love to write and can make time to send one letter or card a week, I know many service members who would appreciate it. This program is, obviously, very security conscious (you do not share your soldier's name or address with anyone). Paul Krieger of Minnesota says, "I've been with this group for 6 or 7 years. They are always asking if we could take on another soldier because of so many requests!"

iSERVED Stickers: If you've seen these white stickers on vehicles that read, "IRQ" or "AFG" they are the work of a non-profit organization that makes the stickers for Veterans of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. They ask that you donate any amount to help cover the cost of printing and postage.

If you are a veteran, a sticker/stickers will be sent to you for free.

FORE OUR SOLDIERS: Send new or gently-used sporting goods and other items to service members so they can enjoy them. - Scott Lokken

EXPIRED COUPONS CAN HELP TOO

Check out Overseas Coupon Program.  You adopt an overseas military base and send coupons there. Even coupons that are 2 months past expiration are accepted. - Rita Smith

Send a gift card to a deployed service member through GI Woodshop
GI Woodshop, Inc., PO Box 211398, Dallas, TX 75211. - Jeanne Minnich

   

ROOT BEER FOR THE TROOPS

For $25 (tax-deductible), you can send a 12-pack shipper of Sprecher Root Beer or any Sprecher gourmet soda to troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. This program is being sponsored by Sprecher Brewery and the nonprofit George Washington Stein Club. - Anne Sprecher 

CHAPLAINS' CLOSET provides new clothes to wounded service members when they arrive for treatment at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Donations of new clothing are needed.

Please send any of the following new items:

Three Pack of men's or women's underwear, sizes Small, Medium, Large
Sweat tops or bottoms, S, M, L
Men's or women's athletic shoes, women's sizes 6-9; men's: 9-12
Black duffel bag 
PLUS a get-well card (a card alone is also great)

Mail to: 

LANDSTUHL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER
ATTN: MCEUL-CH/Chaplains Office
CMR 402
APO AE 09180

More needed items: 

Phone calling cards, DVDs, portable DVD players and travel-size toiletries. They would also be happy to receive a financial donation for the Wounded Warriors Fund. 

 Make checks payable to: 

IMCOM-E  CTOF-WW and mail to the above address.

FIRST RESPONSE BACKPACKS FOR THE WOUNDED - Soldiers' Angels has put together a backpack which can be given to wounded soldiers as they arrive at combat support hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan. When the wounded arrive they have only what they were wearing when they were injured, and it is often weeks before their belongings catch up to them. The pack contains hygiene items, a phone card and a blanket. Your donation will send a backpack directly to a wounded hero in urgent need. - Brenda Herman

VACATIONS FOR VETERANS: Peggy and Christopher Carr founded Vacations For Veterans, a nonprofit organization created to provide recently wounded veterans of the United States Armed Forces with a week of free lodgings donated by a vacation homeowner. If you have a home to donate for a week or are otherwise interested, contact the Carrs at info@vacationsforveterans.org.

TREAT MILITARY MOMS TO A SURPRISE: Check out the www.anysoldier.com site and pick out some female soldiers who have children. Then follow up with gifts for them at www.treatanysoldier.com. Judy Halston

Adopt Service Members: check out the Department of Defense web site, OurMilitary.mil. There's a host of organizations, many of them non-profit, grass roots types, that support the troops in many ways. Some that I have dealt with are Operation Air Conditioner, Operation Military Pride, USO, SI Yellow Ribbon and Soldiers Angels. Each organization does something just a little differently from the next, but the end result is the same -- it is a way to support our military, whether active duty, veterans, wounded solders, or military families (or families of fallen soldiers). Some of these organizations have been started by, and are run by, children and teenagers. - Pam Erickson

For other ways to help or just perform acts of kindness visit the Do Nice Things web site. If you ask me, it's kind of like a "Pay it Forward" site. 

Click HERE

Decorated War Veteran Charged With Attempted Murder of Wife

By Alicia Cruz

Senior writer

Theblackurbantimes

His military occupational specialty i nthe U.S. Army was Medic. To servicemembers, he was better known as "Doc" or Corpsman.

On the front lines in Iraq he saved lives and tended to the wounded. His last stint in Iraq earned him a Purple Heart after a bomb hit the vehicle he was traveling in. Now, he's home in Colorado Springs fighting for his life and freedom in a court of law.

In the 1980's hit song "19," by Paul Hardcastle, the songs lyrics describe the reality Vietnam Veterans faced upon coming home from the war. Those words are now the daily mantra many Iraq war veterans live.

"According to a Veteran's Administration study, half of the Vietnam combat veterans suffered from what Psychiatrists call Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder. Many vets complain of alienation, rage, or guilt Some succumb to suicidal thoughts. Eight to Ten years after coming home almost eight-hundred-thousand men are still fighting the Vietnam War"

Almost immediately following his return from Iraq in December 2005, Delgado realized he was suffering from post-traumatic stress and needed help. He complained of "fear of losing self control," "feelings of hopelessness" and "paranoia," his medical records show.

In addition to Delgado's worsening PTSD, he was dealing with the fact that his mother was dying. In March 2008, the Army relocated Delgado to Fort Carson so he could be near his mother's side. He worked at the emergency room of Evans Army Community Hospital on base, and spent his time off with his ailing mother.

She died in June 2008, and according to his wife, that's when her husband's emotional state began deteriorating. Yet this decorated war veteran did not give up. He forged ahead and sought help at the behavioral health unit at the base hospital. Delgado's medical records reveal that in the nearly three months between his mother's death he sought help at least four times. Each time, he was referred to a civilian doctor. He saw the off-base doctor twice, and was prescribed anti-depressants, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety drugs."

Three months later, he was arrested.

It scared me, because I didn't know what was really happening," his wife said of his troubled state. "I didn't know what was going on."Shayla Delgado believes the treatment her husband received was inadequate. Unfortunately, she says, it took his arrest to get him the care he needed: in-patient treatment at civilian facilities specializing in PTSD. While her husband tries to heal from his invisible war wounds, she's trying to clear his name."It's just so sad because, you know, my husband's a really good person," she said, weeping. "He deserves to be treated better."

Shayla Delgado is standing by her man.

She says prosecutors are wrong about her husband trying to kill her. It all began on the evening of September 24, 2008. The Delgado's were celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary. There was alcohol, food and fun. At some point an argument began and it all went downhill from there. Shayla Delgado says her husband grabbed a gun and rattled off suicidal thoughts. "I've been thinking about how I'm going to do it," she recalled him saying. "I just can't live like this any more. I can't do it, I can't do it.""He was telling me, 'Take our son and leave because you don't want to be here for this,'" she said, breaking down in tears. "I was really, really scared."

Shayla says she begged her husband to speak with his father by telephone in order to calm down. While father and son spoke, Shayla says she seized the opportunity to get her sleeping 1-year-old son out of the home. She left him with a neighbor and headed back to the apartment.

Shayla headed straight for the bathroom where she knew her husband was with a gun where she proceeded to kick the door in. "I see him with the gun in his mouth and I just ripped the gun from his arms and I ran."

The police report states that Shayla Delgado was treated for a broken nose at a hospital, but she had no "visible marks on her neck at that time." The police report says she told authorities her husband wrapped his arm around her neck in the fight for the gun. "Ms. Delgado stated that she was in fear that he was going to kill her or hurt her very badly."

"She then got away and he pursued her." The affidavit goes on to say, "He followed her into the bedroom and again attempted to choke her once more. Ms. Delgado stated she stopped fighting in belief that he would let her go and after a few moments he did."

In a CNN interview, Shayla Delgado said that her nose was broken as a result of the struggle for the gun -- not from a malicious, intentional blow from her husband. Her husband was in crisis, she says, and she saved him from suicide in a violent scuffle. Prosecutors say otherwise. It appears they believe that Shayla is a battered woman too confused or afraid to tell the "truth"

They have charged Thomas Delgado with one count of first-degree attempted murder and a bevy of other charges. Outside of this arrest, Delgado's only other run-in with the law was a minor traffic violation.

Delgado's case could become one of the first to be heard at a soon-to-be-opened special veterans' trauma court in Colorado, if the family gets its way. Prosecutors have so far refused the family's request. This special court was created to get professional medical care for military veterans suffering from trauma-related disorders who are accused of crimes. An estimated 20 percent of Iraq war veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Delgado medically retired from the Army last week and appeared at his court hearing where he was released into the care of his father and will be monitored by an ankle bracelet while awaiting trial in November.
"I feel like it was 100 percent preventable," Shayla Delgado told CNN. "All we've really wanted this whole time was someone to help us, someone to give him treatment." The district attorney's office, which covers El Paso and Teller Counties, declined to comment for the CNN story and theblackurbantimes was unsuccessful at attempts to speak with the District Attorney on Friday. They have offered Delgado a plea bargain of 5 to 15 years in prison, but the Delgado's are standing firm and have rejected the plea bargain.

Delgado has sang his wife's praises since the beginning of this nightmare. "I would definitely be another one of the lost causes if I didn't have her backing me up in my corner. She's just been amazing, doing amazing things on my behalf," he told CNN. "It's unfortunate that it took an incident like this to get proper treatment." He said his lawyer advised him not to talk about the night in question. "I'm hoping to stay out of jail," he added.

Colin Powell To Make Appearence on Extreme Makeover in May

By Alicia Cruz
Senior writer
theblackurbantimes.com
Former U.S. Secretary of State and native New Yorker (Harlem born, South Bronx bred) Colin Powell will appear on prime time to thank disabled Gulf War veteran Jeff Cooper for his service. Cooper was an Army combat medic during the first Gulf War. Powell will be shown meeting with Cooper and his family as part of an episode of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" which will be airing in May.
Cooper, of Jamesville, N.C., suffers from multiple sclerosis, immune disorders, a collection of symptoms known as the Gulf War illness and is confined to a wheelchair.
The Cooper family episode was taped in March and will air on ABC on May 3. Don't miss it.

Army Private's Death is Suspect To Family, Friends

Who Killed Army Pvt. LaVena Johnson?

LAVENA JOHNSON, PVT, U.S. ARMY
Raped and Murdered aboard the Balad military base in Iraq
By Alicia Cruz

Senior writer

theblackurbantimes.com
LaVena Johnson, a high school honor student, decided to enlist in the Army to pay for college. On July 19, 2005, after serving eight weeks in Iraq, she was killed, eight days short of her 20th birthday. She died on what should be one of the safest places in the world: a military base.

Pvt. Johnson (posthumously promoted to private first class) was found dead in Balad, Iraq, in a tent belonging to military contractor KBR, the former subsidiary of Halliburton. Pvt. Johnson was the first woman from Missouri to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The U.S. Army has officially ruled her death a suicide, saying she shot herself in the head. Johnson's family was suspect from the beginning. having spoken to johnson days before her death, they knew that Johnson was far from sad let alone suicidal. She was returning stateside for the holidays and was very excited.

Eyebrows and questins were raised beginning with the viewing of their daughter's body at the funeral home. Johnson's mother and the mortician noticed suspicious bruises inconsistent with the report the Army gave the family. In an attempt to get the Army's version of this story, I telephoned the office of the Sergeants Major and was told that he could not comment on this blackurbantimes.com story or any other.

The Army claimed that a right-handed Johnson had shot herself in the head with an M-16 rifle, but the gunshot wound was on the left side of her head. Under the Freedom of Information Act, the family of LaVena Johnson requested copies of the autopsy report along with photos and that's when things heated up:

At 5-foot tall and weighing 100 pounds soak and wet, this petite woman had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument. Her teeth had been knocked out, her back and right hand had been doused with a flammable liquid and set afire. Her nose was broken and there were bruises, scratches and teeth marks on her upper body. Debris found on her body suggested that Johnson's body had been dragged. Her genital area was lacerated, bruised and there was a substance later proven to be lye that had been poured into her vagina.

What an odd and violent "suicide". Why torture yourself before you kill yourself? None of Johnson's family members bought the suicide claim and once the autopsy report and photos came in, they were convinced Johnson had been tortured, raped and brutally murdered.

And despite all this mutilation, she was fully clothed when her body was found in the tent, with a blood trail leading to the tent.

Despite the overwhelming evidence, the Army has refused to investigate. Through an online petition, ColorofChange.org demanded an investigation by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and keep the family in prayer.

Johnson's story is really several stories in one, and is about more than an individual Black woman who was raped and killed by her fellow soldiers. African Americans have fought in every war since the Revolutionary War, and often their country has been a far more formidable foe to them than the so-called enemy they were told to fight.

Often, youth of color, lacking opportunities at home and in need of money, look to the military as a career option and a way to pay for school. Perhaps these young people were channeling war resisters of a prior generation, such as Muhammad Ali, who once said, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. ... They never called me nigger." That war was devastating to poor communities of all races, and the black community in particular, as their young men came home in the thousands in body bags, or maimed, traumatized, as dope fiends or completely insane.

It was this "cruel manipulation of the poor," as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called it, one that united people of different races "in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit."

Forty years later, we find ourselves in another unjust and senseless war. This "home invasion" of Iraq, as Philadelphia veteran journalist Reggie Bryant aptly characterized it. And Johnson is a casualty of this war and her death runs the risk of being swept under the rug if something is not done about it.

The case of Johnson raises yet another issue: Violence against women is a problem in the U.S. military, and other slayings and suspicious deaths similar to Johnson's are being classified as suicides. And Johnson is not the only woman to die a suspicious death on the Balad military base.

Retired Army Reserve Col. Ann Wright said 1 in 3 women who join the military will be raped or sexually assaulted by servicemen. Of the 94 military women who died in Iraq or during Operation Iraqi Freedom, 36 died from injuries unrelated to combat. While a number of them were ruled as suicides and homicides, 15 deaths remain that smell suspicious. For example, eight women from Fort Hood, Texas, died of "non-combat-related injuries" at Camp Taji, three of whom were raped before their deaths. Camp Taji is an Army base about 10 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Also, a number of female employees of Halliburton/KBR have been sexually harassed, assaulted and gang raped in Iraq. Their employment contract calls for such cases to be decided through arbitration rather than in a court of law. Halliburton and KBR, these war profiteers awash with money, even wanted one alleged rape victim to pay for their costs to defend themselves in arbitration. Lord have mercy ....

Now is the time that the family of LaVena Johnson, and all those other nameless women killed by the military, will find the justice they deserve.

LaVena Johnson web site

DOD stats on violence against women in the military

Four recruiter suicides at one unit lead to probe

Widow blames pressure to sign soldiers up, husband's tour of Iraq
Herb Nygren Jr / AP
Amanda Henderson holds a photo of her late husband, Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Henderson, at her home in Henderson, Texas.
HENDERSON, Texas - Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Henderson, a strapping Iraq combat veteran, spent the last, miserable months of his life as an Army recruiter, cold-calling dozens of people a day from his strip-mall office and sitting in strangers' living rooms, trying to sign up their sons and daughters for an unpopular war. He put in 13-hour days, six days a week, often encountering abuse from young people or their parents. When he and other recruiters would gripe about the pressure to meet their quotas, their superiors would snarl that they ought to be grateful they were not in Iraq, according to his widow. Less than a year into the job, Henderson — afflicted by flashbacks and sleeplessness after his tour of battle in Iraq — went into his backyard shed, slid the chain lock in place, and hanged himself with a dog chain....
Full Story:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28354659/