This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Jonn Lilyea

  • Veteran cemetery vandals identified

    Veteran cemetery vandals identified

    Residents of Adams, Massachusetts were outraged that vandals were tearing up flags placed on veteran headstones of the Bellevue Cemetery according to the UK’s Daily Mail.

    Adams resident Mark Paquette told News10 he was watering flowers at Bellevue Cemetery last week when he saw broken flag poles on the ground.
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    At the bottom of a hill, he saw that flags were missing from all the veterans’ graves, with the poles either left in their holders or broken and discarded on the ground.

    ‘Who would do something like this? And what would they be doing with the flags?’ Paquette said.

    ‘I was concerned that it was vandalism.’

    The vandalism turned out to be the result of the local groundhog population.

    Then, on Tuesday, a woman finally saw it occur with her own eyes at Bellevue.

    ‘They saw the woodchuck jump up on a flag and pull it right out of the holder,’ Mark said.

    The Paquettes say that they’re thankful it wasn’t a cruel act of vandalism.

    ‘I’m glad to see that the veterans are respected the way they are,’ Mark said.

    I’m sure that the local constabulary will issue a statement soon that there is no connection between the vandals and radical terrorists.

  • Monday morning feel good stories

    Monday morning feel good stories

    From Albuquerque, New Mexico;

    When officers spotted the suspects speeding away from the store in a white van, they followed them.

    “This is two area commands, we have a massive scene here,” said APD Officer Simon Drobik.

    The pursuit ended in a Smith’s grocery store parking lot, where shots were fired.

    “We came in here quick stop just to pick up some cherries because they were on sale we were supposed to do a quick in and out,” said Leandrew Deswood, who was inside Smith’s during the shooting.

    Police say an officer shot at the suspects.

    They say one of the suspects was taken to a hospital where he later died and the second is in custody.

    From Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania;

    “The (intruder) came from across the street and went into the victim’s garage. While in the garage, the (intruder) retrieved a gas can and walked into the victim’s house. The (intruder) began pouring gasoline all over the floor,” according to a news release.

    The home owner pushed the intruder out of the home, while at the same time, his daughter retrieved a handgun and gave it to her father then called 911, police said.

    The intruder repeatedly “kept coming at” the homeowner, knocking him the ground, police said.

    “The (homeowner) got to his knees and fired one shot at the (intruder), striking him in the left arm and abdomen,” police said.

    The intruder stayed on the ground until paramedics and police arrived at the scene, and was taken to a local hospital for treatment for his wounds.

  • Major Stephen Uurtamo comes home

    Major Stephen Uurtamo comes home

    USAF Retired sends us a link to the news that Army Major Stephen Uurtamo of Headquarters Battery, 82nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division is coming home finally after being held as a prisoner of the Chinese Army since late 1950. His 76-year-old daughter, Carol Elkin, will be there to say ‘goodbye’;

    For the Uurtamo family, the service is the final chapter of a story that began in late 1950 when the 32-year-old career soldier was declared missing in action after fierce fighting in one of the bloodiest battles of the war near the Ch’ongch’on River in North Korea.

    He was declared dead after several returning U.S. prisoners of war reported that Uurtamo had been captured and died at a war transient camp where prisoners who survived came home with stories of watching their buddies starve to death.

    “He died from malnutrition and pneumonia,” Elkin said.

    The whereabouts of his body remained a mystery for decades. Then, in 2005, a joint U.S. and North Korean military recovery team recovered 32 sets of remains from a burial site. About eight years after that, Elkin went to a Chicago hotel for one of the events the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency holds around the country in which people like her are updated about their missing loved ones and given a chance to provide DNA samples for comparison with DNA pulled from recovered remains.

    Hondo told us that his remains had been identified last year.

  • 2LT Robert R. Keown comes home

    2LT Robert R. Keown comes home

    On Friday afternoon, forever young Second Lieutenant Robert Keown came home to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. His earthly remains were recovered from a mountainside in Papua New Guinea where his P-38 aircraft crashed after a mission in 1944.

    His nieces and nephews were on hand for his welcome home according to the Associated Press;

    Relatives never knew what happened to him until November. That’s when genetic testing confirmed that remains found years ago on the island were his.

    Keown was buried Friday with full honors.

    Nieces and nephews are the closest remaining relatives to attend the funeral of Keown, who grew up near Atlanta in Lawrenceville, Georgia, before moving to Scottsboro, Alabama.

    His father died in 1937 and his mother in 1979. Keown’s two brothers also died while he was missing, the most recent in 2015.

  • Kenneth Franks aka Kenneth Ellis; Stolen Valor down under

    Kenneth Franks aka Kenneth Ellis; Stolen Valor down under

    Aussiepusser sends us a link to the story of Kenneth Franks whose house was raided by Australian authorities after he came to their attention on Anzac Day parading about in unearned military accoutrements;

    He pleaded guilty to falsely representing to be a returned soldier, sailor or airman and improper use of service decorations.
    Franks had a conviction recorded.

    When contacted, he said he did not want to comment, other than to say he had recently lost a family member, his head was “not in the right spot” and he had “hit the drugs pretty hard”.

    Locals said the 49-year-old moved to the area about two years ago and showed up to this year’s Anzac Day dawn service wearing about 10 medals on his chest, claiming he was an ex-SAS soldier.

    Goondiwindi Returned and Services League vice-president Bill Brasington said Franks originally came to the attention of the branch when he visited Anzac badge-sellers on the street, wearing a Special Air Service Regiment badge on his hat.

    “He said he was an SAS fella and had been deployed everywhere, everywhere overseas — you name it, but he said it was all a secret,” he said.

    The organization could find no record of Franks ever serving in the military. He was fined $1000.

  • Sunday morning feel good stories

    Sunday morning feel good stories

    From Jackson County, West Virginia;

    Officials say [Billy] McFarland drove up to Ravenswood to pick up a woman with whom he had a previous relationship. We’re told he held that woman against her will in his vehicle with a gun he had purchased several hours before the shootout.

    Officials tell WSAZ police originally responded to a call that McFarland was driving erratically and tried pulling him over. They say officers knew something was wrong when that woman jumped out of the vehicle.

    They tell WSAZ once she jumped out, McFarland stopped and began shooting her while she was on the ground, trying to get behind the police vehicle. At that point, we’re told McFarland saw officers and began firing at them. That’s when police shot back, hitting him multiple times.

    McFarland is listed in critical condition and is still alive.

    From New Philadelphia, Ohio;

    Police had received a report at 5:55 p.m. Thursday about a shooting incident in the 400 block of North Broadway involving a man with a gunshot wound in the lower leg. He was transported to a hospital and then flown by helicopter to Akron City Hospital, where he was treated and released.
    With consent, police searched the apartment and found and confiscated a semi-automatic handgun.

    Earlier Thursday, police had received a report of a residential burglary on North Broadway. Nelson said that a safe was stolen, which contained cash and the .40-caliber handgun.

    “The shot went through his leg, but he’s lucky it wasn’t a hollow-point bullet or the damage would have been much more severe,” Nelson said.

    The safe had been cut open in the apartment, where five other people were present, he said. Instead of arresting the suspects now, officers expect to seek charges against them through the Tuscarawas County grand jury because the five were there when the safe was opened, or shared its contents.

    “Everybody in the apartment admitted to being addicted to crystal meth,” he said.

    The apartment manager served them with an eviction notice Thursday night, he added.

  • How the media covers “good guy with a gun” stories

    How the media covers “good guy with a gun” stories

    Here’s how CNN covered a robbery attempt, as reported by WKTV in Utica, New York;

    Multiple people shot at Atlanta grocery store

    Posted: Jun. 16, 2018 1:50 PM
    Updated: Jun. 16, 2018 1:50 PM
    Posted By: CNN Wire

    According to the DeKalb County Police Department, multiple people were shot near the Kroger grocery store on Wesley Chapel Road.

    Authorities confirm three people were shot and they have been taken to a local hospital.

    Police say this shooting was not random. Two of the victims were targeted and followed to the Kroger. Police believe the shooting stemmed from a robbery attempt.

    We covered this in our Feel Good Stories this morning. What actually happened was that three armed thieves tried to rob a couple leaving the grocery store. The couple was armed, too, and shot the three criminals. Neither of the robbery victims were injured and all three criminals wound up in the hospital. You would never know that from the CNN story, though.

  • Col. Jason Beers; screw up, move up

    Col. Jason Beers; screw up, move up

    Colonel Jason Beers was relieved from his position as commander of the 91st Security Forces Group at Minot Air Force Base last month when the unit lost a crate of ammunition and a machine gun. Stars & Stripes reports that he’s been reassigned as the chief of installations division at AFSOC Headquarters at Hurlburt Field in Florida.

    In that role his responsibilities will include managing funding for AFSOC’s security forces and civil engineering personnel, and implementing policy for the installations division, [Air Force Capt. Amanda Farr, a spokeswoman for the command] said.

    “We are fully confident in the colonel’s ability to manage our security forces and civil engineer programs for the command,” Farr wrote in an emailed statement.

    So, he went from a unit to Dakota to a unit in Florida. That’s a promotion right there – it will seem like it come Winter. He couldn’t maintain control over a crate of 40mm grenades and a machine gun so he’s going to manage an entire base.

    By the way, they still haven’t found the missing ordnance at Minot and the investigation continues.