FOB Tacoma

With “kill team” trials behind them, some families of convicted soldiers stand by Gibbs

Adam Ashton — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:29:35 +0000

Last week’s abrupt conclusion to the Army’s two-year “kill team” investigation at Joint Base Lewis-McChord led me to call several of the families whose lives were upended by successive courts-martial. Check The News Tribune Sunday for the story I’m writing from the interviews on how they’re rebuilding their lives with the trials behind them.

One impression that stood out: Some of the families are standing by convicted “kill team” ringleader Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs.

This isn’t too surprising given that so many of Gibbs’ friends and fellow soldiers attended his November court-martial. They’ve been pulling for him along …

Surgeon general insists Army is not pressuring clinicians to avoid PTSD diagnoses

Adam Ashton — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:07:55 +0000

Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho yesterday cast her investigation into a forensic psychiatry team at Madigan Army Medical Center as a push to ensure that the Army delivers a consistent diagnosis for post-traumatic stress disorder across the service.

Her testimony before a congressional subcommittee represented her first public remarks on the investigation since The Seattle Times reported that the Army is investigating the forensic psychiatry team’s reversal PTSD diagnoses for 14 soldiers who passed through Madigan.

According to a Defense Department summary of her testimony, Horoho told lawmakers she launched the investigation to “look into the …

JBLM commander delivers optimistic message on progress in Afghanistan

Adam Ashton — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:37:03 +0000

Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s senior leader today said he’s cautiously optimistic about NATO’s ability to hand more control of security in Afghanistan to local forces.

Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti is the No. 2 commander in Afghanistan. He deployed in July with about 500 soldiers from Lewis-McChord’s I Corps.

Today, Scaparrotti told reporters the Army is sending more advisory units to Afghanistan to support the country’s growing army.

“With over 300,000 Afghans in uniform, freedom of movement has increased, insurgent support bases have been reduced, and the people are gaining respect for their Afghan security forces. I believe this trust …

Scam artists claim to be deploying JBLM soldiers in bogus car ads

Adam Ashton — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:00:03 +0000

Scam artists pretending to be Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers are hocking cars on the web with deals that sound too good to be true.

Officials at Lewis-McChord received several calls last week from would-be buyers who grew suspicious about claims made on web sites such as craigslist and cars.com.

The ads show off different cars – one is a 2003 Audi; another is a 2006 Dodge Ram – but they share a suspicious request to pay for them immediately through an Amazon-related web site.

In one of them, a woman claiming to be Sgt. Sarah Harper says she has an …

Army drops murder charge against last soldier tied to “kill team” cases

Adam Ashton — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:39:50 +0000

The Army today dropped its case against the fifth soldier it accused of murdering Afghan civilians during a 2010 deployment with a Joint Base Lewis-McChord Stryker brigade, his attorney said.

The decision ends a 19-month ordeal for Spc. Michael Wagnon, 31, who came home early from his deployment in June 2010 facing charges that he murdered a noncombatant and tried to obstruct an investigation into wrongdoing among his platoon mates.

He was one of 12 soldiers from the 5^th Brigade, 2^nd Infantry Division who were charged with misdeeds during their deployment to Southern Afghanistan. The Army has convicted the other …

Two events coming up for talks on combat trauma at home

Adam Ashton — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:49:53 +0000

Members of Coffee Strong, the Lakewood veterans advocacy group that raised alarm bells about post-traumatic stress and behavioral health services at Joint Base Lewis-McChord over the past year, will be speaking at two public events over the next few days.

On Saturday, veterans and social workers will be participating in an event at Tacoma Community College called “The War Comes Home: Trauma and Its Aftermath.” Speakers include Iraq veteran and Coffee Strong member Joseph Carter and Ashley Joppa-Hagemann, the widow of Lewis-McChord Ranger who took his life in June.

On Tuesday, The Grand Cinema in Tacoma …

Five WA soldiers and Marines were killed in Afghanistan last month – most since July 2010

Adam Ashton — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:13:32 +0000

January was a hard month for Washington State’s military community. It lost five service members who grew up here or served here to fighting in Afghanistan, the most casualties in a single month since July 2010 when seven were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Those numbers of fallen service members remain well below the heavy fighting Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers saw during the Iraq surge and during the first months of the 5th Stryker Brigade’s deployment to Afghanistan in the late summer of 2009. But they’re a reminder that difficult days lay ahead even as the Obama administration …

New GAO reports scrutinize spending on PTSD, air defense programs with arms at JBLM

Adam Ashton — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:11:45 +0000

Two new reports from the Government Accountability Office signal a hard look at popular Defense Department programs that grew considerably over the past decade and expanded their reach into the South Sound’s military community.

Last week, the GAO urged the Defense Department to coordinate spending on programs designed to help soldiers cope with brain injuries and post-traumatic stress. The Defense Department spent $2.7 billion on these programs between 2007 and 2010, and the GAO says it’s difficult to tell if any of that spending is redundant.

GAO reports tend to read from a mile-high view, and they rarely …

Lewis-McChord soldier killed by IED during foot patrol in Afghanistan

Adam Ashton — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:39:33 +0000

A Joint Base Lewis-McChord lieutenant from Wisconsin was killed in Afghanistan Wednesday while leading a foot patrol in Kandahar Province.

Lt. David Johnson, 24, is the first casualty this year in the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. The Stryker brigade deployed with about 2,500 soldiers to Afghanistan last month and took positions in Afghanistan’s southern provinces of Zabul and Kandahar.

He is a graduate of Evangel University in Springfield, Mo. who was commissioned in the Army in 2010 through the Reserve Officer Training Corps. The Defense Department said he was killed by an improvised explosive.

“We are very proud of …

Tacoma lawmaker wants to throw the book at crooks who target deployed soldiers

Adam Ashton — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:34:33 +0000

Air Force Master Sgt. Steven Turner’s spoiled Christmas generated a ton of goodwill from News Tribune readers in late December when we wrote about a burglar swiping presents he bought his son and stealing a special collection of rare records from his Graham home during his last deployment to Afghanistan.

Readers wanted to replace Turner’s record collection at a minimum; some contributors to our web site were ready to lock up the burglar who targeted a deployed airman.

It turns out Rep. Troy Kelley, D-Tacoma, also was moved by Turner’s misfortune. He wrote a bill that would allow …