I don’t know how he got it, but COB6 got Hasan’s ORB;
DA Photo to follow.
Category: Breaking News
-
Shooting at Fort Hood, TX
A shooting at Fort Hood prompted the base and nearby schools to order a lockdown, according to a report on MSNBC.
The news station said seven people were killed and 12 wounded. The station said there were two suspects in the shootings.
KCEN-TV in Central Texas reported that one person was in custody and one was still at large. It quoted a source as saying that shooter has a high-powered rifle and is aiming to kill.
Killeen ISD says all Fort Hood schools are on lockdown.
Seven people have been reportedly killed and another 12 wounded at Fort Hood near Killeen, officials with the post said early Thursday afternoon.
-
1 dead, 8 injured in training accident (Updated)
An Army helicopter crashed into a Navy ship off of Virginia’s coast early this morning killing one service member and sending eight others to the hospital. I guess it’s a tough reminder that training for war is just as difficult as the actual war.
According to news reports, all of the survivors are stable, whatever that means.
UPDATE at 1400Z23102009: More on the accident from the Associated Press;
Service members were rappelling down a rope from the helicopter to the USNS Arctic around 8 p.m. Thursday off the Virginia coast near Fort Story when the crash happened, Navy spokeswoman Lt. J. G. Megan Issac said.
The helicopter crashed into the ship’s stern and ended up on its side, Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby, commander of the Military Sealift Command, said at a news conference Friday morning at Naval Station Norfolk. A small fire on the ship’s deck was quickly extinguished.
“It was a routine visit, board, search and seizure exercise that takes place between Army and Navy units on a fairly regular basis,‘’ Buzby said, adding that ships like the Arctic are used because they are similar to merchant ships.
The exercise trains the service members on how to quickly board a ship that might be threatened by pirates or terrorists, for instance, Buzby said.
The Arctic has returned to Naval Station Norfolk, and the damaged helicopter remained aboard the ship.
The names of the casualties haven’t been released yet.
-
GI Bill checks on time – finally
Well, DVA Secretary Shinseki kept his word and started cutting checks for the new GI Bill today. This report from the American Legion in DC;
“What are all these people doing here?” asked a befuddled worker, struggling through an unusually tightly packed front entrance to her Eye Street office building in downtown Washington, DC this morning. The colleague she queried was equally baffled. A young woman in the hundred–plus person crowd of unfamiliar faces gave them a clue, “We’re here to pick up our checks.”
The checks to which the young lady referred are the Department of Veterans Affairs G.I. Bill emergency relief payments, designed to help unshoulder the burdens faced by many young veterans and their families suffering hardships due to late VA payments of their newly won educational benefits. Through the VA website and from news stories generated by The American Legion and others, members of the rapidly lengthening Eye Street queue had gotten the word. VA Secretary Shinseki had read the news stories of college-enrolled veterans’ hardships and done the right thing.
When asked how the hiccup in the issuance of benefits checks had impacted her family, the young woman smiled thinly at her husband, gazed down at her stroller-bound infant, shook her head slowly and said, ”Wow! We’ve had to borrow money and shuffle bills — a lot of bills — around. It’s been really, really rough.”
“And where are you from?”
“Virginia Beach. We left at four this morning, but it was really worth the trip.”
Yes, yes, the VA came through – but it’s the same thing they could have done a month ago without any prodding. Just to be clear, I think the preparations for this should have been started a year ago when President Bush signed the bill. But Democrats were bound and determined to get this bill passed with all of it’s faults, they should have stepped up and got ready to process these folks’ paperwork on time.
I commend all of the VSOs for getting this stop-gap in place, but they’d better be prepared to put needles down on the DVA every month because you can expect them (the VA) to begin resting on their laurels this weekend.
-
Baucus: Our moment in history
The Senate has announced their Democrat-only health care bill. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told the American people that “This is our moment in history”. Then he set about scaring people claiming 17,000 more people lost their health insurance this week. I wonder from which orifice he pulled that figure. Anyway, the Washington Times writes;
Republican negotiator, Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, accused Democratic Senate leaders and the White House of trying to rush the process.
“I’m disappointed because it looks like we’re being pushed aside by the Democratic leadership so the Senate can move forward on a bill that, up to this point, does not meet the shared goals of affordable, accessible health coverage that we set forth when this process began.”
Mr. Grassley said he still has concerns that the bill would open the door to federal funding of abortions and coverage for illegal immigrants. He also said he wants alternatives to the mandate for individuals to purchase health insurance and tougher medical malpractice reforms.
In fact, House Democrats specifically excluded measures related to immigration and abortion according to Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak, who says he’ll vote against health care
ifunless federal money won’t be used for abortion in this interview with Megyn Kelly; -
Student beaten on bus in Missouri
Rurik sends this link to the story about a gang-sized beating on a bus from Belleville West high School near St Louis, MO;
I hope this bus driver gets canned for just shouting (?) “Sit down, guys”. The very least he could have done is pull the bus over and call the police, f’Pete’s sake.