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Category: Veterans in the news

  • Veterans saving the world

    Chief Tango sends a couple of links from local news stations where veterans in the right places at the right times. The first is from Kansas City where Vietnam veteran and Army medic, C.D. Donovan was visiting his wife in the hospital when he came across Diana and James Price who were expecting a new born baby but they were in the wrong place;

    Diana and James Price headed to Research Medical Center about 8:20 Saturday morning, but when they arrived at the hospital’s entrance, the doctors and nurses were waiting in the emergency area.

    James ran into the hospital for help as Diane went into labor.

    “I was scared, I just kept screaming,” Diane James shared.

    Thankfully, C.D. Donovan visits his wife at the hospital every morning. The former Army medic heard Diana screaming in the van and went to help. In a matter of minutes, he delivered Diana’s baby girl in the van and walked away.

    The next story comes from Tampa where a barbeque incident injured some folks, but luckily for them, Clay Nycz was nearby;

    Alaezea Longmire was having a cookout at her apartment complex’s pool with family and friends to celebrate her 17th birthday. The occasion soon turned frantic after Longmire’s mother, Dana Brezina, started putting food on the grill.

    Brezina and her 13-year-old daughter were both thrown a few feet back.

    Clay Nycz was heading to work but first stopped by a friend’s apartment right near the pool.

    “As soon as I walked in, I heard a blast just like I did overseas, straight like an IED,” Nycz said.

    An Army vet who served in Afghanistan, Nycz’s military training kicked in. He ran over to the pool area, jumped the fence and went into action.

    “Pulled everybody to the side, got everybody out of there,” he said.

    Nycz carried Brezina and her daughter away from the explosion.

    “Both of them were in shock. (I was) reassuring them they’re going to be OK,” Nycz said.

    I figured I’d tell about these stories because the media is too busy looking for crazed vets to put in the news.

  • Barry Cordero; Inspiring Next Generation of Latino Engineers

    Barry Cordero; Inspiring Next Generation of Latino Engineers

    Barry Cordero

    The folks at ABC News end us a link to their latest in their “Second Tour” series about veterans after their service. This one is Barry Cordero who graduated from the mean streets of Chicago to the US Navy as a nuke;

    Cordero said he wasn’t a great student in high school. “I was in a lot of honors classes but I didn’t perform really well,” he said. “I knew I wanted to be a doctor one day because I really had a passion for helping people.”

    Cordero said he wasn’t a great student in high school. “I was in a lot of honors classes but I didn’t perform really well,” he said. “I knew I wanted to be a doctor one day because I really had a passion for helping people.”

    ht barry cordero kb 140512 16×9 608 US Navy Vet Inspiring Next Generation of Latino Engineers

    U.S. Navy Nuke and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) President Barry Cordero. (Angel Canales/ABC News)

    One day he went to his school guidance counselor and asked him for advice about what he should do.

    “He really discouraged me from pursing college. He encouraged me to use my mechanical experience to pursue a mechanical education,” Cordero recalled.

    Despite the advice, he applied to the University of Illinois and at the same time he went to a Navy recruiter to check out his options. On his second try, Cordero passed the nuclear engineering entry exam and two weeks letter he received an acceptance letter from the University of Illinois. He ended up going to the Navy since he already signed up for service and four days after he graduated high school he was on a bus for boot camp.
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    U.S. Navy vet Barry Cordero’s boot camp graduation photo. (Courtesy of Barry Cordero)

    Cordero joined the Navy in 1997 and served for 6 years. He went on to become a Nuclear Electrician’s Mate and in 1999 was assigned the USS Nimitz, which was being refueled and overhauled at the time. “It was a unique experience and I had a lot of opportunities to teach and that sparked my interest in teaching and coaching,” he said.

    When he left the Navy in 2003, Cordero decided to pursue a bioengineering degree. He enrolled at the University of California, San Diego bioengineering program and graduated in 2007.

    When he was a tutor at Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA), there was a group of students working on a project for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). The students asked Cordero to help them with the project and that was his first pull into the organization he now leads as president. He said he enjoyed organizing that project with the students and having an impact in the community.

    So go read the rest about a veteran works to inspire youngsters in a field that needs more Americans.

  • Christian Gunter; saving the world a couple of veterans at a time

    Christian Gunter; saving the world a couple of veterans at a time

    Christian Gunter

    19-year-old Christian Gunter was working the night shift at the Vilonia long term care for veterans near Little Rock, Arkansas when tornadoes struck the other day. He’s the manager of the home for disabled veterans. He felt it was his responsibility to move ten of those veterans to a nearby church that doubles as an emergency shelter. According to Fox News;

    Gunter made sure he got all the vets loaded into a vehicle and transported to a church about a mile away that serves as a storm shelter. The home sustained major damage as parts of the roof were torn off.

    “It’s always our priority to take the best care of them that we can possibly do. Our guys have risked a lot and it’s a great opportunity for us to help them out,” he said.

    The story continues that his own home was destroyed by a particularly destructive tornado as well.

    Thanks to ROS for the link.

  • ABC News; Second Tour; John Steinbaugh

    ABC News; Second Tour; John Steinbaugh

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    The folks at ABC News send us the latest in their “Second Tour” series about veterans working to help veterans and the military. In this episode, they highlight former special forces medic John Steinbaugh and his work in battlefield medical innovation;

    Steinbaugh spent 20 years in the Army as a Special Forces medic and had several deployments and rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

    Four years before his retirement, he was approached by the Army to work on a project to speed up the process of saving wounded soldiers. They needed an expert in research and development in the Special Operations Command.

    […]

    While Steinbaugh was working in the Army, his predecessor started a project for hemorrhage control with RevMedx, a company based in Oregon that creates medical products designed specifically for combat medics and civilian first responders focused on controlling hemorrhages in pre-hospital settings. He took over the project and when he retired from the Army in 2012 he went to work with them.

    He is is now the liaison between the military and RevMedx. “I make sure that the products we are designing stay on track to make sure the medic in combat gets exactly what he wants in the battlefield,” he said.


    ABC US News | ABC Business News

  • Kennedy and Bisping: so yeah, that happened

    me tim blackfive

    I’m pretty pissed I am not with the Ranger Up guys and Blackfive up in Canada right now getting ready for this fight. If you didn’t see what happened yesterday, it turns out that Bisping doesn’t like Tim. Which just doesn’t make sense, because Tim is a awesome guy, and I know that when I went to the gym with him last August he had such nice things to say about Bisping.

    Yeah, maybe not. Bisping is a douche rocket. I hope Tim knocks him back to next week. Either way, I’ll be watching on my couch wearing my shirt:

    kennedy

    Here’s hoping that Tim knocks the douchebag out of him.

  • Eric Harroun dead…again

    Eric Harroun

    Nearly a year ago, we first wrote about Eric Harroun, a former American soldier who had taken up arms against the Syrian government with some al Qaeda dudes. He was reported dead from action in Syria once, but that turned out to be false because he returned home to charges to which he pleaded guilty that he had supported terrorists. Now his family is reporting that he’s dead again, here in the US.

    The family of Eric Harroun announced on its Facebook page that the 31-year-old died, though the cause of death is still unknown. Relatives confirmed the death on Wednesday. Foul play is not suspected and toxicology reports are not expected for 60 to 90 days.

    Harroun spent three years in the Army before 2000 and never had the opportunity to deploy.

  • Three arrested in Detroit for attack on Army vet

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    Army veteran Adam Wagner came to the defense of a female clerk in a 7-Eleven in Detroit the other night when three thugs were hassling her. The thugs followed Wagner outside and started hassling him when they noticed military-related bumpersticker on his vehicle. From Stars & Stripes;

    The suspects noticed military insignias on the victim’s car and then began to make insulting remarks about him and the U.S. military, Jedrusik said. They began punching and kicking him.

    The attackers ran off. The victim followed them while trying to call police, but the attackers beat him up once more, knocking him to the ground, punching and kicking him again, said police.

    “They beat the heck out of him,” Jedrusik said. “They beat him pretty bad.”

    From Click on Detroit;

    On Saturday, Westland police said the department made three arrests in the attack. Police said the public helped identify the three men who took part in the beating of a man who served his country in Afghanistan.

    “The Westland Police Department would like to thank the public for their assistance in identifying these three subjects,” the department said.

    Police said at this time the identities of the three arrested will not be released.

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  • Army vets on patrol in NYC subways

    The folks at ABC News send their latest article from their Standing Up For Heroes series. This one is about NYPD Transit Crime Unit Officer Juan Rodriguez and his partner Cezar, a former military working dog.

    Rodriguez is a tabbed Ranger who got out of the Army in 1997. Cezar had three deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan;

    The NYPD tested 50 dogs for the job before they decided to add Cezar. Law enforcement agencies are encouraged to adopt retired military dogs that still have a working life. “He’s already trained and tested and now we can use it in the police department,” says [Randy Brenner, training supervisor with the NYPD Transit K-9 Crime unit], who is training Rodriguez.

    […]

    For Rodriguez, it’s great to finally be able to be working for a dog. “I feel like I’m a kid again. It brought back my military time,” he says. “I’m not sure how long their working life is but I hope he lasts a good amount of years so I can work with him as long as I can.

    “Just like anybody who has a pet, you grow a bond. He’s not only your pet at home but your partner at work.”


    ABC US News | ABC Business News