December 5, 2014
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STARS AND STRIPES
Volume ©SS2014 2014 Volume6, 6, No. 51 ©SS
F DECEMBER 5,2014 2014 F RIDAY RIDAY ,, D ECEMBER 5,
10
MONTHS MONTHS AT SEA SEA
Budget turmoil a threat Budget turmoil a threat to to shorten toNavy’s Navy’splan plan to shorten deployments deployments Page 2 2 » Page
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Flight deck personnel Flight deck personnel prepare prepare forfor operations operations aboard the USS aboard the USS Carl Carl Vinson, fourth month Vinson, in the the fourth month of aascheduled scheduled 10-month 10-month deployment, Friday deployment, onon Friday in the thePersian Persian Gulf.Gulf. HENDRICK SIMOES ENDRICK S IMOES Stars and and Stripes Stripes
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COVER STORY
Budget blamed for lengthy cruises 10-month deployment among longest since the Vietnam War BY HENDRICK SIMOES Stars and Stripes
ABOARD THE USS CARL VINSON IN THE PERSIAN GULF — The biggest challenge for the 4,900 sailors here isn’t the mission of supporting airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria; it’s coping with an unusually long deployment. The San Diego-based USS Carl Vinson is in the fourth month of a 10-month deployment. Navy officials say it’s the longest scheduled deployment since the Vietnam War or, at least, in anyone’s experience. “This is the longest deployment I’ve ever done,” said Capt. Karl Thomas, the Vinson’s commander. “We do it proudly, but at the same time, it’s a long time to be away from home.” Navy leaders have a plan to reduce deployments to seven months
PHOTOS
BY
HENDRICK SIMOES/Stars and Stripes
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert takes questions from sailors during on all-hands call aboard the dock landing ship USS Comstock, underway in the Persian Gulf, on Nov. 28. in 2016, but it depends on Congress’ allotment of funds for maintenance and manning. The Navy’s chief of naval operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, said that the extended deployments were due to budget
“instability” over the past few years, including cuts related to sequestration. Since the Vinson’s arrival in the Persian Gulf in mid-October, when it relieved the USS George H.W. Bush,
the carrier has launched more than 500 sorties in support of Operation Inherent Resolve against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. SEE PAGE 3
An F/A-18 Super Hornet launches from the USS Carl Vinson to conduct a mission in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. The Vinson’s crew is on a 10-month deployment.
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“The planes are taking off every day with bombs, and they’re coming back, sometimes with them and sometimes without them,” Thomas said. During his Thanksgiving visit last week with servicemembers deployed to the Middle East, Greenert was pressed at various stops about the prolonged deployments. “When will we go back to seven-month deployments?” a Petty Officer 2nd Class asked at an all-hands call aboard the Vinson. Greenert told sailors on the Vinson and other ships he visited that the Navy’s Optimized Fleet Response Plan aims to reduce deployment lengths to seven months starting in 2016. “If you say, ‘I’ll believe it when I see it,’ that’s OK with me,” he said. In the interim, he said, eight- to 10month deployments will continue. To help sailors pass the time when they’re not working, the Vinson offers entertainment and distractions, such as movie nights in the hangar bay and bingo. A successful shipwide effort to reach 100,000 “likes” on the Vinson’s Facebook page has earned the crew permission from the ship’s captain to have what’s known as a steel beach picnic — essentially a barbecue on the flight deck. The Vinson’s isn’t the only ship crew that has had to endure a lengthy deployment recently, although it’s on track for the longest in recent times. Deployments of eight months or more have become increasingly commonplace in a Navy that was accustomed to a norm of about six months. Since October, both the Bush Carrier Strike Group and the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group have returned to the U.S. after nine-month deployments. Under the Optimized Fleet Response Plan, the Navy intends to change the maintenance, train-
‘ This is the longest
deployment I’ve ever done. We do it proudly, but at the same time, it’s a long time to be away from home.
’
Capt. Karl Thomas USS Vinson commander
PHOTOS
BY
HENDRICK SIMOES/Stars and Stripes
The USS Carl Vinson, in the background, is underway in the Persian Gulf, on Nov. 28. The ship is in the midst of 10-month deployment to the Western Pacific and Middle East.
A U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet returns to the USS Carl Vinson after flying a mission in support of airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria on Nov. 27.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert reenlists more than 40 sailors aboard the USS Carl Vinson, underway in the Persian Gulf, on Nov. 28.
ing and deployment cycle for ships from 28 months to 36 months, which will allow sailors to spend more time in their homeports. For carrier strike groups, the plan is contingent on there being no change in the Navy’s current requirement of having a carrier in the Persian Gulf, one in the Western Pacific and one in transit. However, the biggest obstacle to implementing any of those plans could be the budget. “If we’re stuck on the previous year’s budget, we can’t put new initiatives in place,” Greenert said. Officials blame gridlock in Congress for lengthy deployments in the first place — mainly sequestration and a series of continuing resolutions, a short-term legislative measure that keeps the federal government funded at current spending levels. Officials said sequestration and the government shutdown last year caused delays to shipboard maintenance and training that resulted in a domino effect of late deployments. The Navy will be caught up with maintenance on its ships in roughly a year, Greenert told sailors aboard the Vinson. Another challenge for the Navy is filling its 6,000 manning gaps at sea. While aboard the dock landing ship USS Comstock, Greenert told Stars and Stripes that the Navy has enough sailors, but not in the right place with the right skill sets. He attributed the gaps to the budgetary turmoil of recent years as well, which interrupted some education and training. “Just having sailors isn’t going to help if they can’t operate the crane and well deck,” he said. simoes.hendrick@stripes.com Twitter:@hendricksimoes
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December 5, 2014 Friday, December 5, 2014
E-book series examines the critical WWII years
MILITARY
Proposal looks at handling B of military sex assault cases Lawmakers again seek to remove chain of command from process BY TRAVIS J. TRITTEN
over the past year.
Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON — Senators on Tuesday rekindled efforts to remove military sexual assault prosecutions from the chain of command via a last-minute addition to the defense budget. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., along with a bipartisan coalition of nine fellow lawmakers, said a separate military criminal justice track for the cases should be rolled into an annual budget agreement expected from Congress in the coming days. The move also comes as the Defense Department is poised to release new data on assaults in the ranks. The proposal won widespread support in the Senate earlier this year, but it was narrowly defeated by a filibuster. Gillibrand said it was being reintroduced in the last days of Congress’ lame-duck session because the military is not solving a longstanding epidemic of sexual assaults and an entrenched military culture of acceptance. “We are here to say the military has not been able to demonstrate they have made a difference, and they need to be held to that scrutiny and standard this year,” Gillibrand said. The senators planned to float an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets the Pentagon budget but has been delayed for months. The House and Senate have been meeting to hammer out a bill to be passed before the end of the year. Gillibrand said outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is expected to present new militarywide data on sexual assaults to President Barack Obama this week, but that numerous media reports over the past year of victims who were retaliated against and military perpetrators who received lenient punishments shows that Pentagon efforts are not working.
44
#
Live your life with theirs in mind.
The Pentagon report
CARLOS BONGIOANNI /Stars and Stripes
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, DN.Y., speaks Tuesday during a briefing on Capitol Hill at which a bipartisan group of senators voiced their support for changing the military’s prosecution of sexual assault. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said an act of Congress has become necessary. #44promises of “In Washington, reform are often just promises until an institution is forced to reform,” Grassley said. “The military approach to sexual assault seems to be a brick wall that won’t crumble under the usual pressures here in town.” Military commanders, called a convening authority, now decide what charges will be brought against sexual assault suspects, how cases will be tried and who will sit on court-martial juries, said Don Christensen, former chief prosecutor for the Air Force who now advocates for military legal reforms and appeared on Capitol Hill with the senators Tuesday. “It is a system set up for failure” because those military authorities often have little legal training and can be closely associated with suspects, Christensen said. The bill would create a separate military prosecutor outside the typical chain of command to try cases of alleged sexual assault. Senators said the military has been promising for decades to reduce assaults and change its culture but has been unable to deliver despite embarrassing media reports
An anonymous biennial workplace and gender relations survey, which tracks sexual harassment and sexual assault in the active-duty and reserve forces, could be released by the DOD this week. This year’s version, developed by the Rand Corp., is unusually detailed, raising questions about continuity in reporting. Gillibrand said in April that the change could hinder efforts by the Pentagon and advocacy groups to track progress in preventing and responding to sexual assault in the military. In particular, Gillibrand said she was concerned about possible changes to the definition of “unwanted sexual contact.” An estimated 26,000 troops had experienced some kind of unwanted sexual contact or sexual assault, according to the results of the 2012 survey. That same year, there were 3,374 sexual assaults reported in the military. A DOD spokeswoman said in April that the Pentagon hired Rand because of prompting from Congress to have an outside organization conduct the survey, but that the methodology would allow the Pentagon to compare previous data and “seamlessly assess the progress the department is making.” Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., championed a bill that changed the way the military handles sexual assaults but does not go as far as Gillibrand’s proposal. It took from commanders the ability to overturn convictions, required that victims of sexual assault have access to specially trained military lawyers and required a review by the service secretary if a commander decides not to go to trial against the recommendations of a prosecutor, among other reforms.
ook and magazine disappointed by the First editor Jeff Nilsson World War. They had not describes an America expected that we would actuambivalent about enally impose a lasting peace in tering another war in a region Europe, which was unprechistorically averse to peace; edented in history.” citizens are worried about high The complete “Over Here, unemployment and potential Over There” series will cover attacks on their homeland; the homefront, the war front Congress can’t agree on imand the political front during migration policy that balances WWII. “Writers at War,” the national interest with compasfirst volume, includes warsion. time fiction contributed to Sounds like today’s news, but The Saturday Evening Post Nilsson, historian and archive by contemporary writers like director for The Saturday J.D. Salinger and William Evening Post, is talking about Faulkner. These well-known the America of 1939. voices helped Americans put “There are some interesting the war in human context, parallels seventy-five years Nilsson said. later in 2014,” he said. “Think about Americans Double-digit unemploycoming to terms with terrorment was a concern in 1939. ism today through television, European war refugees and the number of dramas looking immigrants from Central and at it this way and that way,” he South America were an issue, explained. “In 1939 and ’40, and Americans were fearful of there were no dramas on [the] German attacks on U.S. soil. radio addressing the war, but “It was very much on their it was very much in people’s minds whether we would be minds.” bombed or invaded,” said Nilscontrast SPOUSE CALLS to In son, the editor of a new e-book today’s series called “Over There, continuous Over Here: A Retrospective of coverage, WWII.” The series will reveal radio news the era as it was reported in in 1939 was The Saturday Evening Post usually 15 and include links to articles minutes from the magazine’s digital each evearchive. The first volume, ning, giving “Writers at War,” is now availthe big picable, with three more volumes ture without Terri Barnes coming in much detail 2015. or human Nilsson said Join the conversation with Terri at interest. the 75th anni- stripes.com/go/spousecalls “That versary of the was left to start of WWII print, major and the centennial of WWI is newspapers or magazines like a good time to look back and Saturday Evening Post,” said realize that Americans of the Nilsson. “Literary authors time weren’t convinced they were able to put a more human should fight another war in Euslant onlet’s this.” start Together rope. In 1939, most Americans Nilsson said the electronic were unwilling to be involved, formatfor of theyour books allows planning he said. After the Japanese readers to have immediate attacked Pearl Harbor family’s on Dec. access — via live links — to he future. 7, 1941, Americans understood Post articles referenced in the the war in the Pacific. books, as well as to entire is“They knew that we were sues in the magazine’s archive. attacked,” he said, “but the war “You’re seeing what people in Europe, why are we Name, fight- approved saw back in the war years, designation ing that, and do we really need viewing their world the way Agent, New York Life to fight that?” Adolf Hitler’s they would view it every Insurance Company ambitions and atrocities were week,” he said. (if applicable) yet to be revealed. The CA/AR loss of Ins Lic #With the perspective of hisAddress Americans in Europe durtory, modern Americans may ing WWI were still fresh, and# think WWII was universally Phone Europe was a region known accepted and understood in its Email for conflict, Nilsson explained, time, but Nilsson emphasized much like the Middle East that’s not reality. Life and war today. were just as uncertain then as “Americans were certainly now.
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crossword A LITTLE TOO WARM By Gary Cooper ACROSS 1 Bacardi, e.g. 4 Thai currency 8 “So there you are!” 14 Nasal partitions 19 Certain Ivy Leaguer 20 Cupid’s counterpart 21 Kind of recording 22 Projectile for 20-Across 23 Raggedy doll 24 Greek salad cheese 25 Change genes 26 It may be organized 27 Chocolate source 29 Jimmies 31 “Thar ___ blows!” 32 Ad ___ 33 Quavery singing effect 35 “Relax, and that’s an order!” 37 Calm 40 Connive 41 Costner’s “Untouchables” role 42 Nuclear energy source 44 Marble used as a shooter 45 It controls the bending of the mast 49 “The Journey is the Destination” photojournalist 51 Back of the neck 52 “Your turn”
53 Mushroom part 55 “When I Need You” singer Leo 56 Humidor item 57 More impolite 59 Speak from a soapbox 61 Botanical swellings 63 Ninth-inning reliever, often 65 Makes less distinct 67 Stop working 70 It follows sunset, in poetry 71 Conveyance with a basket 75 Adam’s mate 77 Break away 79 ___ complaint (officially protest) 80 Cleans with soap 82 Acquire ivories 85 Gorillalike 87 Mooring sites 88 Boorish sort 91 Violin bow application 93 “Cut it out!” 95 Big beer buy 96 Little brook 97 Light bulb units 98 California city 100 Food scrap 101 Foolhardy 102 Pillager’s take 106 Chicken noodle, e.g. 107 Puts on the scales 109 Ukrainian seaport 111 Expressed in words 115 Spring month
116 Entertaining couple 117 Polish “Peter” 119 First president to marry while in office 120 One of 150 in the Bible 122 Shoot for (with “to”) 124 Conceal 126 Hot temper 127 Book feature 128 One with a requirement 129 Aces, sometimes 130 Cloak-and-dagger org. 131 Aggregate 132 Tests one’s metal 133 Hideous-looking 134 Always, in poetry DOWN 1 Do a double-take 2 Of a forearm bone 3 Chop finely 4 Dupes 5 “The best things in life ___ free” 6 Sticky issue 7 Autocrat until 1917 8 Reproductive cell 9 Unwelcome obligations 10 Repeated machine gun sound 11 Category 12 Easily angered 13 “A Death in the Family” writer 14 Chief of a North American tribe
15 Fielder’s goof 16 Sticker 17 Cruise in the movies 18 Shock’s partner 28 Current measures 30 Author Fleming 34 Land parcels 36 On the ocean 37 “Sanford and ___” 38 Wine valley 39 Vase-shaped jug 43 Bullring hero 45 “Use the ___, Luke” (“Star Wars” line) 46 Small eggs 47 Constructed again 48 San Francisco’s ___ Buena Island 50 Soapmaker’s need 51 Like some decrees 54 French Sudan, today 55 Certain Kosovo resident 56 Forty winks 58 Fix, as a pump 60 Gang territory 62 Cat call 64 Harassed 66 Small marine animal 68 Fix, as leftovers 69 “Be it ___ humble ...” 72 Bright fish 73 Luau souvenirs 74 Endures 76 Big Bertha’s birthplace 78 PC keyboard key 81 Wages received during an illness
83 Plant-growing facilities 84 Suffix that maximizes 86 Vichy attraction 88 Boast 89 Add to the staff 90 Preludes to war, often 92 ___ of Capri 94 Winnie-the-___ 97 Functioned as 99 Husband’s commonlaw right, formerly 101 Mother Goose forte 103 Fish hawk 104 Basket twigs 105 Chinese “way” 108 Bothers a lot 110 Ninnies 112 It’s a piece of cake 113 Supernatural 114 Dismal, old-style 116 Comedian Carvey 118 Commandments pronoun 120 After-school grp. 121 Actor Alastair 123 Wife of President McKinley 125 “Runaway” rocker Shannon
Last week’s answers
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8Friday, November 28, 2014
UNDER SIEGE FROM WITHIN
T
December 5, 2014 PAGE 3
A L• ASS T AK R SA A NE DD S IT T R IIPO E S N•
Patricia Sims sought in vain to help her son, Issac, an Iraq War veteran, receive counseling at the VA. M ARTIN KUZ /Stars and Stripes
Reeling from PTSD, Issac Sims finds himself unable to gain access to VA treatment as he spirals toward tragedy
BY M ARTIN KUZ Stars and Stripes
KANSAS CITY, Mo. he neighborhoods on Kansas City’s east side exist in various stages of entropy. Crime is commonplace, and residents accept without comment the sporadic pop of gunfire. Along Lawndale Avenue, shaggy lawns border houses that slump from weather and neglect, almost too exhausted to stand. Patricia and Shawn Sims settled in the working-class area in 2000, buying a brown clapboard bungalow after years of moving around the country with their son and daughter in tow. They were drawn by the low cost of living and the proximity of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center 2 miles away. Then as now, Shawn traveled to the hospital several times a year for an array of physical ailments resulting from his combat tours in Vietnam. Patricia believed war had affected their son’s mental health. Issac Sims sustained a traumatic brain injury from an explosion during his second tour in Iraq with the Army in 2010. The blast had fractured his genial nature. “I was worried about how he’d been acting since he got hurt,” she said, dressed in a gray T-shirt with “Army” imprinted in black lettering across the front. She sat in the living room on a sagging leather sofa beside tote bags bloated with her son’s medical and military records. “I wanted to figure out what kind of help he could get.” Sims drifted within himself after his return to Kansas City following his discharge from the Army in April 2013. He fell out of contact with his military
comrades, perhaps to blunt the ache of what had slipped away, and avoided most of his old friends in town, whose experiences he found too removed from his own. He showed scarce interest in working. His marriage remained fraught. His isolation and depression mixed with anxiety as his mind moved at the speed of war. He “patrolled” Lawndale Avenue, walking the street as he scanned rooftops for snipers, dropping into a crouch when a car backfired or a door slammed. He sometimes carried a gun and military rations when heading out on a “mission” in the forest behind the neighborhood. Migraines stalked him, sleep evaded him.
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At his mother’s urging, Sims visited the VA. Tests confirmed his traumatic brain injury and suggested he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. A clinician prescribed medications for his anxiety, headaches and insomnia. Recent studies have documented a widespread pattern of VA providers overprescribing drugs. The reports bolster a perception that the agency emphasizes medicating patients over counseling them to hold down costs. For Sims, drugs proved ineffectual, even as the label of PTSD intensified his self-alienation. “He wore that with shame,” Patricia said. His reaction typified that of combat veterans steeped in the military ethos of invulnerability. On occasion,
PA R T 2
THIS SERIES CONTINUES FOR THE NEXT 2 WEEKS.
holding up an old Army ID card or unit patch, Sims told his parents, “This is who I am. I’m not some crazy person.” Groping for purpose, he spoke of joining the French Foreign Legion. America’s faraway wars come home in the form of the men and women sent to fight them. The actions of some veterans with PTSD can make them appear inscrutable and unsympathetic, and if tolerated by the military to varying degrees, they re-enter a civilian world that is largely unaware of and indifferent to their condition. Their families struggle to decode what goes unspoken. Like many veterans, Sims was reticent with loved ones about his combat tours. After moving back to Kansas City, he never talked with his family about the bomb blast in Iraq that scarred his mind. He alluded to survivor’s guilt without sharing details. SEE PAGE 4 see page 9
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Patricia hoped he would unburden himself on their long walks in the woods, when they amused each other by singing duets, switching from Sinatra to Nickelback to church hymns. Shawn, an electrician by trade and a handyman by nature, hoped for the same when he asked his son to help with small projects around the house and yard. “He kept everything pretty much to himself,” Shawn said. “I understand that, but you could also see he had things that were bothering him.” Shawn has withstood the internal ravages of war for more than 40 years. Combat trauma trailed him home after he served in Vietnam, and in bad moments when the memories return, he feels rage and despair anew. “That’s why I didn’t push him on anything,” he said. “With PTSD, you’re just trying to survive.” His right forearm bears a blue “U.S. Army” tattoo dulled by the decades, and he wore a black baseball cap dotted with military pins and stitched with the words “Purple Heart Combat Wounded.” His injuries included a bullet wound to his right foot, and in March he had a partial amputation. When Shawn had trouble walking stairs, his son carried him. “Yeah, good kid,” he said, voice rustling. “Good heart.” Clean-shaven and precise about his attire, Sims presented a calm, even carefree facade to strangers and acquaintances. He could don a soldier’s poise as he once put on a uniform. Those closer to him observed a man under siege from within. Josh Pacetti, a young homeless man whom Sims befriended in his final months, sensed in him an ineffable heaviness. “It seemed like there was something dark weighing on his chest that he couldn’t express,” Pacetti said. Patricia and Shawn allowed him to stay at the house, treating Pacetti as a surrogate son, and as Sims spiraled, he watched the combat veteran succumb to wounds from a distant battlefield. “He had the war inside of him.”
Shawn Sims stands by the back door of his garage in Kansas City, Mo., in the spot where police fatally shot his son.
THESERIES Part 1: The unwinding of Issac Sims’ Army career. Part 2: Reeling from post-traumatic stress disorder, Sims finds himself unable to gain access to a Veterans Affairs treatment program as he spirals toward tragedy. Part 3: A five-hour standoff between Sims and Kansas City police leads to his fatal shooting and questions about the tactics of police for handling veterans in crisis. Part 4: A look at a federally funded program to train police in de-escalation tactics for dealing with troubled veterans, and how an officer’s shooting of an unarmed veteran with PTSD spurred one police agency’s reform efforts.
ONLINE: Previous story and more at stripes.com/go/casualties
Accountability Sims had stopped taking his prescribed medications by early this year. He blamed the jumble of drugs for his drowsiness and worsening headaches. Around the same time, Patricia discovered he had developed an addiction to aerosols, inhaling vapors from shaving cream cans and hair spray bottles. The effects of aerosols mimic those of alcohol and pot, the substances most often used by people with PTSD to self-medicate.
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The unrest in his marriage deepened. In March, his wife called police and alleged he had struck her. Officers arrived at the couple’s house, across the street from his parent’s home, and as he later told his mother, the sight of their weapons provoked a flashback to Iraq. He ran down Lawndale Avenue as cops gave chase before tackling him. Sims vented on Facebook about how officers handled him. He wrote
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— Josh Pacetti, friend of Issac Sims divert veterans toward support services for behavioral health, substance abuse, jobs and housing. “We were seeing these vets with problems — mental illness, alcohol, homelessness — that you could pretty much connect to when they got out of the service,” he said. “Their behavior could look pretty bad. But when you started to understand the root causes, and you thought about how they’ve served their country, it seemed like there was something more we could do — should do — than lock them up or just put them back on the street.” Bland has learned that support services matter little unless a veteran with combat trauma commits to treatment. He considered Sims sincere in his desire to repair his mind. “I really felt like we were on the right path,” Bland said. “He seemed like he understood what was going on.” The judge directed him to seek counseling at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. SEE PAGE 6
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IT SEEMED LIKE THERE WAS SOMETHING DARK WEIGHING ON HIS CHEST THAT HE COULDN’T EXPRESS. HE HAD THE WAR INSIDE OF HIM.
that they “held me down then took turns hitting me as hard as they could attempting to snap my neck, stomped my already broken skull more times than I could count as well as diclocating (sic) my knee and then re-setting it while senior officers looked on and laughed. I have never been so disappointed in the so called justice system in my life.” Three neighbors who witnessed his arrest offered similar accounts to Stars and Stripes. Authorities charged Sims with domestic assault. His parents and several neighbors asserted that his wife, a native Cambodian who speaks limited English, lied to police and instigated much of the discord in the couple’s household. Following his arrest, she moved into a domestic abuse shelter. (She could not be reached for comment.) Sims moved into a spare bedroom in his parents’ basement, and in April he pleaded guilty in the city’s veterans treatment court. Six years ago, Judge Ardie Bland created the court, the second of its kind in the nation, to
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Sims resented that he had to plead guilty to avoid jail, and he complained to his parents about the order to attend therapy. His inability to grasp the severity of his condition reflected a common symptom of PTSD. Attuned to his lack of insight, his parents and friends recalled, they accompanied him to the hospital at least five times in May in a series of failed attempts to enter him into a treatment program. Pacetti joined him on one trip. He described Sims charging up and down a stairwell in the 10-story building to check for insurgents and bombs as he “cleared” the hospital. A short time later, Pacetti said, an intake worker told them no beds were available. Claude Guidry runs the Kansas City VA’s case management program for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He explained the two-step process for starting treatment. A social worker at the hospital meets with a veteran for an initial assessment and decides whether a psychiatrist or psychologist should conduct an in-depth evaluation that day. In most cases, he said, the evaluation is deferred at the patient’s request, with a follow-up appointment typically scheduled within five days. “I hear about medical centers where you have to wait a considerable time,” Guidry said. “Here, that’s not the case.” Federal privacy laws prohibited Guidry from discussing Sims’ medical record and efforts to receive counseling, and the VA’s acting inspector general in Washington has yet to release findings of a review of his case. Yet Guidry’s time estimate contrasts with the apparent delays endured by Sims and other veterans. Pat Hinkle, a psychotherapist in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, works with retired servicemembers in his private practice. Some patients have arranged sessions with him after waiting as long as four months to meet with a VA clinician. “The level of care there seems to be good,” he said. “But it’s getting in that’s a problem.” Hinkle, an Army veteran, contends the agency should ease access to shortterm services for patients in crisis and provide greater oversight for longrange care. “There has to be more help for the most severe cases,” he said. “The need is growing.”
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sleeping bag and stay on the floor. “I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “It was like, ‘Can’t you all do something to help my boy not be so ate up and confused?’ ” In his last days, Sims, who would have turned 27 in July, rarely slept and subsisted mostly on military rations. He took miles-long “speed hikes” in the woods to scout for enemy combatants. Standing by a window inside his parents’ house, he pretended to shoot cars and passersby with a wood sword. He shouted to neighbors, “I’m the best soldier in this troop!” His bitterness over his arrest had hardened into defiance. One afternoon, sitting in the living room with his AK47 bridging his thighs, Sims vowed that if police officers confronted him again, “They ain’t taking me alive.” “He was out there,” Patricia said. She felt helpless as he receded further into an unseen war. “His mind was racing and he was talking nonsense most of the time. The one thing he said that made sense was, ‘I’m so frustrated right now.’ ” The family had always kept a handful of guns in the home, and with a pair of veterans living with her, Patricia regarded firearms as a fact of life. Only in retrospect would she wish she had locked up the weapons. On the morning of May 25, Sims argued with his father about which one of them should pick up Patricia from a friend’s house. Shawn refused to hand over the keys to his yellow Hummer
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H2, concerned about his son driving in an agitated state. “I got angry when he got angry,” Shawn said. “That was my fault. I gotta remember he’s not there in his mind. Two guys living together with PTSD is not a good deal.” Sims grabbed his AK-47 and fired five or six rounds while standing in the front yard. Shawn called 911. He told the dispatcher his son suffered from PTSD and requested that police bring him to the VA. He then called Rick Jackson, a friend of Issac’s who lives on Lawndale Avenue, and asked him to stop by to try to calm his son. Jackson walked over and knocked on the front door. “Rick, is that you?” Sims yelled. Hearing Jackson’s voice, Sims invited him inside and said, “If it wasn’t you, I was going to shoot you and break your neck.” The former soldier wore dark running shorts, and his torso was bare except for an infantry blue cord around one shoulder and a length of black parachute cord around the other. His appearance had changed with his manner. He chattered without pause while showing his friend how to dismantle and reassemble the AK-47. Jackson stared, bemused. “It was an Issac I didn’t know,” he said. “It was like he was back in the military.” He urged Sims to seek help and hugged him before leaving. Opening the front door, Jackson saw a handful
Issac Sims of police officers standing at the edge of the yard, guns drawn. He raised his hands and said, “Don’t shoot!” Officers reported hearing shots from inside the house. Sims ignored their commands to step outside. They ordered residents to evacuate and escorted Shawn away from the house to police headquarters, where Patricia met him. The next time the couple saw their son he was on a steel table beneath a white sheet. kuz.martin@stripes.com Twitter: @MartinKuz
THEIR BEHAVIOR COULD LOOK PRETTY BAD. BUT WHEN YOU STARTED TO UNDERSTAND THE ROOT CAUSES, AND YOU THOUGHT ABOUT HOW THEY’VE SERVED THEIR COUNTRY, IT SEEMED LIKE THERE WAS SOMETHING MORE WE COULD DO — SHOULD DO — THAN LOCK THEM UP OR JUST PUT THEM BACK ON THE STREET. — Judge Ardie Bland, Kansas City veterans treatment court
‘I’m so frustrated’ Sims and his mother tried to enroll him in a counseling program at the VA hospital on May 21. Turned away, they went back two days later, and an intake clerk told them a bed might open in 30 days. Patricia recounted how in a desperate plea, and to no avail, said she asked whether her son could bring a
PHOTOS
BY
M ARTIN KUZ /Stars and Stripes
Judge Ardie Bland, who oversees the veterans treatment court in Kansas City, Mo., directed Issac Sims to seek counseling at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center after he pleaded guilty to domestic assault in April.
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STARS AND STRIPES
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• STARS
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December 5, 2014 PAGE 11
M ARTIN KUZ /Stars and Stripes
Shawn Sims stands by the back door of his garage in the spot where police shot and killed his son, Issac, ending a five-hour standoff on May 25 in Kansas City, Mo.
A MIND P STILL AT WAR
After failing to get help from the VA, Issac Sims’ parents turned to the police. A few hours later, the former soldier with PTSD would be dead. BY M ARTIN KUZ Stars and Stripes
KANSAS CITY, Mo. atricia and Shawn Sims stared at the body of their What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty andHis independence? dead son. blue eyes were closed. His unlined face revealed none of the torment of his last days. He It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, guns of our looked likethe a boy dreaming. Kansas City police had war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and army.Sims, shot disciplined and killed Issac 26,resumption in the garage of his parents’ house a These are not our reliance against the of tyranny in our fair land. day earlier. His death was a bloody coda --A. Lincoln PA R T 3 All of them may be turned against our liberties, to a five-hour standoff that began after THIS SERIES CONCLUDES September 11, 1858 officers responded Shawn’s 911 call. IN NEXT WEEK’S EDITION. without making us stronger or weaker for thetostruggle. Speech at Edwardsville Father and son had argued the morning of May Inplanted frustration, Issac Sims shot several rounds from Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God25. has in our bosoms. an AK-47 outside the house. Shawn told the 911 dispatcher that he Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit prizes wanted police towhich take his son toliberty the Veterans Affairs Medical Centerin forall treatment. as the heritage of all men, lands, everywhere. Sims, an Army veteran who deployed twice to Iraq, had battled Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of of despotism aroundstress your disorder own doors. the effects post-traumatic after moving back to Kansas City last year following his discharge. SEEpage PAGE see 14 12
I appeal to you again to constantly bear in mind that with you, and not with politicians, not with Presidents, not with office-seekers, but with you, is the question, “Shall the Union and shall the liberties of this country be preserved to the latest generation?” --A. Lincoln February 11, 1861 Speech to Gov. Morton in Indianapolis
December 5, 2014
ALASKA EDITION
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code breaker In these Code Quotes from America’s history, each letter given is a code consisting of another letter. To solve this Code Quote, you must decode the puzzle by replacing each letter with the correct one. An example is shown. A ‘clue’ is available if you need extra help. Example: G E O R G E W A S H I N G T O N Is coded as: W J A M W J G I T C X Z W F A Z OW EMKL TW JWSVQ LG VSJW SDD XGJ
UGMFLJQ. XGJ ZAKLGJQ VGWK FGL DGFY WFLJMKL LZW USJW GX XJWWVGE
LG L Z W OWS C G J L Z W L A E AV. H JW KAV W F L VOAY Z L V. WA KW FZG OWJ Hint: This five-star general created the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which led to the creation of the world wide web – the internet. Last week’s answer: “As we acknowledge the past, we do so knowing that the individual blessings for which we give thanks may have changed, but our gratitude to God and our commitment to our fellow Americans remain constant.” President William J. Clinton
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JESUS BETHLEHEM AUGUSTUS Christmas NAZARETH ANGELS Jesus BALTHAZAR Mary MYRRH GREATJOY Joseph
MARY STAR CENSUS PALESTINE GASPAR Augustus Angels FRANKINCENSE Census Gaspar HEROD SAVIOUR Roman Melchior
Bethlehem Star Manger
Nazareth Palestine Shepherds
JOSEPH MANGER ROMAN SHEPHERDS MELCHIOR Myrrh GOLD Herod GOODNEWS
Balthazar Frankincense Gold
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Previous week’s answers
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December 5, 2014
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The annual three-day program offers instruction by VA clinicians about the effects and symptoms of combat trauma. The course resembles the training that the Justice Department’s COPS office has provided for two dozen police departments across the country. The programs reflect a dawning awareness in law enforcement of the dual impact of delays in VA treatment and the slashing of state budgets for behavioral health care nationwide. More than $4 billion has been cut since 2009, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “The mental health system in America is broken, and I’m not just talking about the VA,” Hess said. “And, unfortunately, law enforcement is left to pick up the pieces.” Hess did not take part in the negotiations with Sims. He described the former soldier’s death as “not a good thing” while asserting that police must weigh a troubled veteran’s needs against the potential threat posed to civilians and officers. “We have an obligation to other people in the community and ourselves,” he said. “I’ll risk my life to save anyone in a heartbeat. But I’m not going to risk my life in a situation that’s no-win like that.” The weapons and tactical training of a military veteran compounds the wariness of police, and if negotiators are unable to establish contact, the prospect of violence rises. “When you’re armed and barricaded, so many options are off the table,” Hess said. “We want to resolve the situation peacefully, but at that point, you’re going to come out and surrender or we’re going to go
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in and get you.” Most former military members involved in fatal standoffs had previous encounters with law enforcement. The training course held by Kansas City police emphasizes guiding veterans toward support services when those initial incidents occur, a pre-emptive approach to stop them from imploding. Yet gaining access to timely care, particularly through the VA, remains a PHOTOS BY M ARTIN KUZ /Stars and Stripes pervasive problem for veterans naPatricia Sims used a shirt that belonged to her son, Issac, to soak up tionwide. Sims was some of his blood after police fatally shot him May 25. turned away on at least five occasions “You could see it in his them if he wanted to. I think in May when he attempted to eyes,” Chionuma said. “He what happened is, the cops got enroll in a counseling program was there, then he would kind tired of waiting and they blew at the Veterans Affairs Medical him away.” of fade away, then he would Center. come back.” Recounting their She pulled a cream-colored exchanges, the attorney added, His mental health deteriorat- piece of paper from one of the ed further as the weeks passed, tote bags bulging with her son’s “I’m not even sure he was totally aware of all the things and days before his death he military and medical records. he was going through.” brooded out loud about the alIt was his death certificate, Chionuma has learned that leged beating he endured from and she pointed to the lone during the standoff a police police in March. If officers word that identifies the cause officer called the VA and asked came for him again, of death. to talk to someone familiar he told his parents, “They ain’t “Homicide,” she said. with Sims’ psychological taking me alive.” In a medical context, the profile. It was Memorial Day The remark inspires the term refers to death resulting weekend, and nobody on duty question of whether Sims from the actions of others and that afternoon knew his case. intended to commit “suicide by does not assign intent, unlike The person who answered the cop,” goading officers to shoot the legal concept of murder. phone offered to track down a him by pointing his AK-47 at Still, for Patricia and Shawn, the word resonates with blame. clinician. them. His parents discard that A short time later, the officer The couple has retained theory and pivot to a question called back and told the person of their own, wondering how local attorney Chuck Chito forget the request. Sims was police could portray him as a onuma while they consider dead. danger when he never fired at filing a wrongful-death suit “The kid gave his all for them. against the police department. us,” Chionuma said. “He went “I think he felt lost and tired, He represented their son in and fought two tours in Iraq, but I don’t believe he wanted veterans treatment court and sustained a brain injury and to die,” Patricia said. “And remembered Sims as respectcame back here with PTSD. ful and soft-spoken with a mind he obviously didn’t try to kill He needed help. And the entire anybody. With his training, he that flitted in and out of the system failed him. Killed him.” could have killed a bunch of moment.
Max D. Lederer Jr., Publisher Terry Leonard, Editor Robert H. Reid, Senior Managing Editor Tina Croley, Managing Editor for Content Amanda L. Trypanis, U.S. Edition Editor Michael Davidson, Revenue Director CONTACT US 529 14th Street NW, Suite 350, Washington, D.C. 20045-1301 Email: stripesweekly@stripes.com Editorial: (202) 761-0908 Advertising: (202) 761-0910 Michael Davidson, Weekly Partnership Director: davidson.michael@stripes.com Additional contact information: stripes.com
This publication is a compilation of stories from Stars and Stripes, the editorially independent newspaper authorized by the Department of Defense for members of the military community. The contents of Stars and Stripes are unofficial, and are not to be considered as the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. government, including the Defense Department or the military services. The U.S. Edition of Stars and Stripes is published jointly by Stars and Stripes and this newspaper. The appearance of advertising in this publication, including inserts or supplements, does not constitute endorsement by the DOD or Stars and Stripes of the products or services advertised. Products or services advertised in this publication shall be made available for purchase, use, or patronage without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, physical handicap, political affiliation, or any other nonmerit factor of the purchaser, user, or patron.
© Stars and Stripes, 2014
‘I lose my breath’ Police barred Patricia and Shawn from going home for several hours after officers shot their son. The couple returned in the middle of the night and discovered the interior semi-demolished. The cops swept through the house after the shooting and flipped over tables and furniture, knocked down bookshelves and dumped out drawers. Shards of glass from shattered windows and photo frames speckled the floor. Bullet holes pitted the walls at the
Shawn Sims holds an urn in the shape of a grenade that contains a portion of his son’s ashes. back of the house. The couple stepped into the garage and saw a large pool of blood by the back door. They noticed other puddles of blood in the basement, stirring their doubts about the police’s version of the killing. They found a plank of wood on which Sims wrote “#1 Mom” in black spray paint during the siege. Patricia soaked up some of her son’s blood with a white long-sleeved shirt that belonged to him. The rust-tinted garment hangs near his green Army dress uniform in his old basement bedroom. Upstairs in the living room, an urn in the shape of a grenade and painted red, white and blue holds a small portion of his ashes. It stands on a shelf below a collage of photos from his military career. The twin themes run through the house, relics of death beside tokens of life, grief shadowing joy in a space that has become a memorial. “My boy was killed here,” Shawn said. “I’ll never leave.” By night, he said, he dreams of Issac again and again. By day, he is cleaved by opposing urges, to kill cops or to kill himself, to avenge his son or to reunite with him. Patricia comforts her husband as she searches for meaning in her despair. “I can’t believe God took Issac from me,” she said. “I’m not angry at God. I’m just confused.” At each meal, an irrational thought descends, born of a mother’s eternal instinct to care for her child. “What’s Issac eating?” “I lost my best friend,” she said. “Every time I think of him, I lose my breath.” Her voice disappeared. She let the tears fall. kuz.martin@stripes.com Twitter: @MartinKuz
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