Category: Veterans in the news

Eggs sends us a link to a KGUN article from Tucson about veterans trying to reunite a deceased veteran’s medals with his family. Apparently, Marine Corporal Charles H. Stoeckle passed away a while back, and his landlord, cleaning out his apartment, tossed his medals in the trash. Someone found the medals in an old suitcase and brought them to Frank Felix who has taken up the search for the family;

“I was devastated. I felt like crying. I was like ‘This is not right. This is a guy that served his country,’” said Felix.

He held onto the treasures, assuming someone would claim them.

Now, he’s calling in his brothers and 9OYS for help.

“I don’t know who threw it away. They don’t know what it is. This guy is a hero,” said retired Sergeant Mike Obregon, a fellow Vietnam veteran.

“A lot of the general public don’t realize what these people did to deserve these awards. It’s very disheartening,” said John Rodriguez, Commandant of Detachment 007.

So, 9OYS began to dig.

Initial web searches came up empty, but the Nationwide Gravesite Locator shows Corporal Stoeckle, a Nebraska native, is buried in Sierra Vista.

From here the mystery only deepens. Cemetery directors say Corporal Stoeckle doesn’t have any next of kin listed, and there’s very little on his marker.

The video below the jump, autostarts;
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ABC News sends us a link to their continuing series of stories about veterans “Standing Up For Heroes“. This installment is about Omar Bermejo, a Marine veteran with 9 years of service. He lost his arm in a motorcycle accident after he had completed four tours of Iraq. Now he’s going to Sochi for the Team USA Paralympic Nordic skiers in the biathlon.

Bermejo started skiing as part of his physical therapy. In the beginning he didn’t know much about the sport but the moment he stepped into those tracks and took his first ski steps he says he said, “Oh, I’m going to like this.”

The longest race he’s done since was a 20k biathlon individual race. “There’s several cross country skiing races that have been tougher but any race that lasts more than two hours I love. You have to find it within yourself and be reminded of who you are and what drives you in order to finish this type of race,” says Bermejo.

See more US News from ABC|ABC World News

Rick sends us a link from Oklahoma’s KFOR where they report that David Austin Kellerman, a former state-wide official of the American Legion, has been arrested for stealing historical rifles;

During his time there, he was in charge of collecting World War II military rifles from posts throughout Oklahoma.

After finding the weapons, he was then supposed to return the rifles and property to the U.S. Army.

According to agents with the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, Kellerman did not return the rifles to the Army.

Instead, officials say he sold them to make money for himself.

“Hard work by our agents and federal investigators revealed a scheme that not only stole property from our military, but from veterans,” Attorney General Scott Pruitt said. “We are working to recover more of the stolen property and bring to justice anyone involved with this crime.”

The article goes on that 20 rifles have been recovered, but that Kellerman faces five years in prison for his little scheme. There are enough veterans being robbed by various groups in the country, we don’t need to start stealing from each other, too. Five years sounds a little light.

Pinto Nag sends us a link to an NBC News article which noticed that US veterans, namely Team Rubicon are headed to the Philippines to help in the relief efforts there;

Team Rubicon, which is made up of military veterans who work with first responders, prepared packages of food, supplies and medical items over the weekend and will begin rebuilding communities throughout the Philippines, affiliate NBC News Los Angeles reported.

“People are going to be dying of thirst as they’re surrounded by water,” said team member Jacob Wood. “There’s a level of irony that’s just truly tragic.”

Team Rubicon members have been to floods, earthquake-ravaged Haiti, war zones like Pakistan and Sudan, and other places in need of aid.

I’ve had the pleasure of hoisting a few with Team Rubicon members, and I smile every time I read about their latest exploits. They’re usually on the ground before the US government can get out of it’s own way. You can read about their progress at their blog.