December 19, 2014
1
STARS AND STRIPES
Volume ©SS2014 2014 Volume7, 7, No. 1 ©SS
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December 19, 2014
STARS AND STRIPES • STARS
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Friday, December 19, 2014
COVER STORY
PHOTOS
BY
JOE G ROMELSKI/Stars and Stripes
Above: A woman places a wreath on a grave during the Wreaths Across America event at Arlington National Cemetery on Dec. 13. Below: Thousands of volunteers turned out to lay more than 200,000 wreaths.
Veterans honored with wreaths at cemeteries BY CARLOS BONGIOANNI Stars and Stripes
ARLINGTON, Va. — Kathy Dillaber, who survived the Sept. 1, 2001, terrorist attack on the Pentagon that killed her sister helped hang the first of 184 wreaths placed in memory of those who died there that day. The ceremony Dec. 12 at the Pentagon Memorial was the first of several planned across the country and overseas as part of Wreaths Across America. On Dec. 13, thousands of volunteers turned out to lay more than 200,000 wreaths on graves at
‘ I think that in just about every speech that I give in Maine I’ve said something about Wreaths Across America. I just believe in it so much, and I think it’s so good for this country.
’
Arlington National Cemetery. “I was fortunate that I was able to get out of the building. Too many good people didn’t,” said Dillaber, a retired Army civilian who recalled how her “baby sister,” Patty Mickley,
Ann LePage first lady of Maine
another DOD civilian, as well as 24 coworkers from her Army personnel office died when a hijacked plane was flown into the building. SEE PAGE 3
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December 19, 2014
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STARS AND STRIPES • STARS
Friday, December 19, 2014
A N D
STRIPES •
PAGE 3
COVER STORY
PHOTOS
BY
JOE G ROMELSKI /Stars and Stripes
Servicemembers join volunteers in placing wreaths on a fence at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Va., as part of the Wreaths Across America event. FROM PAGE 2
Above: Adm. James Winnefeld Jr., vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hands out wreaths. Below: Navy Lt. Cmdr. Ryan Anderson tells his sons Nathan, left, and Connor about the veteran on whose grave they are about to place a wreath.
Dillaber, who now volunteers as a docent at the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, said her duties of explaining to visitors the significance of the attacks helps her come to terms with the tragedy. It gives her the opportunity to regularly honor her family, both her “blood family and work family that are no longer here,” she said. Joining Dillaber in hanging the first wreath were Wreaths Across America founder Morrill Worcester and Jim Laychak, president of the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Fund. Laychak, praised Wreaths Across America for giving “a great gift” to the families of those who died in the attacks 13 years ago. His brother, David Laychak, an Army civilian, was among them. “That gift is not forgetting our loved ones and helping others never to forget what happened,” Laychak said. During the Dec. 12 ceremony, Katherine Hammack, the assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, talked of the
picture that hangs on the wall of her office on the third floor on the E ring where the plane hit. The picture of a huge black hole reminds her every day what her office building looked like after the attack. “We will not forget the profound loss of the 59 people on that plane or the 125 who were in the Pentagon,” Hammack said, “our colleagues whose lives were cut short that day.” On Dec. 13, Gov. Paul LePage and his wife, Ann, led a large contingent of Maine residents to Arlington for the wreath-laying event. “Their mission statement — to remember the fallen, honor those that served and teach our children — really is my driving force to do what I do for our military servicemembers in Maine,” said Ann LePage. “I think that in just about every speech that I give in Maine I’ve said something about Wreaths Across America. I just believe in it so much, and I think it’s so good for this country.” Ann LePage again made the trip from Maine on a threewheeled motorcycle.
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“We come down every year,” said the governor, adding that, “I take the more traditional way to get down here.” The honoring of those buried at Arlington with holiday wreaths from Maine dates back to 1992, when Worcester Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine, found itself with a surplus of wreaths. Morrill Worcester, the owner, donated the wreaths to Arlington and then decided to keep doing it. The practice continued quietly for 14 years, until word of the venture spread, drawing the interest of others who wanted to participate. In 2006, the company began getting requests to lay wreaths at sites all over the country. The size and scope of the holiday project became so large that the Worcesters in 2007 formed the Wreaths Across America nonprofit. By 2010, the organization, along with a host of volunteers, laid more than 220,000 wreaths at 545 locations in the United States and overseas. bongioanni.carlos@stripes.com
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December 19, 2014
STARS AND STRIPES • STARS
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Friday, December 19, 2014
PACIFIC
Neighbors wary of China’s military buildup Most doubtful of mega-country’s claim that it is simply bolstering its defense BY WYATT OLSON Stars and Stripes
China has increased its defense spending dramatically in the last decade to $131 billion this year, according to its official statements, placing it second only to the United States in military funding. With a jump of more than 12 percent from 2013, many of its neighbors are unsettled by the buildup, particularly in light of China’s claims of sovereignty over islands throughout the South China and East China seas that are claimed by a host of other Asian countries. China is telling critics of the buildup that it is simply reclaiming its history as a powerful yet peaceful and defensive-minded nation. Officials point to the harmonious-minded teachings of Confucius and construction of the defensive Great Wall, among other historical evidence. But that interpretation of Chinese history, which has become an essential tool for the Communist Party of China to assuage its neighbors’ anxiety and manage domestic opinion, is at odds with the country’s history, Asia scholars say. They point out that at the height of its power, China used military force — or its threat — to garner land and wealth. “China uses folklore, myths and legends, as well as history, to bolster greater territorial and maritime claims and create new realities on the land and water,” Mohan Malik, a China expert at the AsiaPacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, wrote in an essay published last year. “Chinese textbooks preach the notion of the Middle Kingdom as being the oldest and most advanced civilization that was at the very center of the universe, surrounded by lesser, partially Sinicized states in East and Southeast Asia that must constantly bow and pay their respects.” China’s reading of history is relevant to the rest of the
W YATT O LSON /Stars and Stripes
Visitors gather to inspect the bow of the Haikou, a Chinese destroyer that arrived in Honolulu in June to participate in the annual Rim of the Pacific exercises. This was the first year China sent ships to the exercises from its navy, which has been dramatically modernized and expanded. world for the very fact that it is central to the ideology underpinning the Communist Party of China’s foreign policy. It’s particularly important to Xi Jinping, China’s president and head of both the CPC and the Central Military Commission. Xi has emphasized the philosophy of Confucius, a teacher who lived around 500 BC, whose principles were once vilified by the CPC under the leadership of Mao Zedong from the 1950s until his death in 1976. During a forum on Confucius in Beijing in September, Xi said China’s historical traditions “can offer beneficial insights for governance and wise rule,” according to the state-owned Xinhua news
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agency. “China lives in the past to chart its future,” Malik said during an interview with Stars and Stripes.
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“It’s China’s quest to expand its maritime frontiers using the Communist Party’s version of history that poses the biggest challenge to regional order and security. History is in dispute. Whose version of history is accurate? “With the collapse of the socialist bloc displacing communist Marxism and Leninism ideology, China has come to rely more and more on the Chinese Communist Party’s version of history to both justify and legitimize the party’s rule in China as part of its patriotic education, particularly since the 1989 Tiananmen massacre,” Malik said. An examination of Chinese history reveals that its foreign policy has been strongly correlated to its relative strength
as a regional power, said Yuan-kang Wang, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and School of Public Affairs and Administration at Western Michigan University and author of the book “Harmony and War: Confucian Culture and Chinese Power Politics.” “When China was powerful, it was more aggressive, and when China was declining, it became more defensive,” Wang said. In his book, Wang examined China’s military policies during the Song and Ming dynasties, lasting roughly from 960 to 1644 AD — interrupted by the centurylong Mongol occupation from 1279 to 1368. SEE PAGE 6
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A MATTER OF DEGREES By Roger D. Ellis ACROSS 1 Lipton and Twinings, e.g. 5 Insect phase 10 One of the Golden Horde 15 Big blowout 19 Bridge toll unit 20 Bishop’s assistant 21 Marks in ancient manuscripts 22 “Do ___ others as ...” 23 Game with hits 25 Place for low-priority items 27 Walloped, old-style 28 Cold-cuts emporium 29 Covered with soot 30 Some tides 31 Running behind schedule 33 Not naughty 35 Jab, for most boxers 37 Unable to appreciate the symphony 41 And so forth (Abbr.) 42 Kind of walk 46 State firmly 47 Skin cream additive 49 Some beans 52 Haberdashery accessory 53 Astronomer’s unit of distance 55 Hilo souvenir 57 One pointing at a target
59 Price marker 60 “Why, ___ be a pleasure!” 61 Cook’s staple 65 Cotton plant capsule 66 Abbr. next to a telephone number 67 Con ___ (vivaciously) 68 Snoozed 69 Dentist’s request 70 Paving block 71 KFC leavings 72 Computer desktop feature 74 Bike with an engine 77 Word with “Water” or “standard” 79 Bargelike boat 80 Hank’s “King of the Hill” wife 83 Release, as an odor 84 “I do” ends it 86 Orthodontists’ org. 87 Lao-tzu’s “way” 88 Physical strength 89 Formerly known as 90 Lecture hall 92 Involve by necessity 94 Alexandra’s husband 97 Hindu sacred text 99 Competition for the swift 100 Dress with a tight bodice 101 Accomplished 103 Cash for incidentals 105 African antelope 107 “Get out of here, fly!” 108 “Go no further!”
109 Raspberry drupelets 112 Sewing-machine inventor 114 Hawaiian guitars, for short 117 Beast of burden 121 Gen Xer’s parent 123 Sans hat 125 Cup part 126 “All kidding ___ ...” 127 Threesome 128 Grandma 129 Tosses in 130 Appraised 131 Dele revokers 132 Percussion instrument DOWN 1 Checks in a bar 2 Final, e.g. 3 A chorus line? 4 People from the Mayflower, e.g. 5 “If ___ told you once ...” 6 Bridge boo-boo 7 Have a yearning 8 Olympic champion Devers 9 Live-forever plant 10 Cigarette filling 11 Insult badly 12 “Ramblin’ Wreck From Georgia ___” 13 Type of hydrocarbon group 14 BBQ serving 15 Lab liquid measurer 16 “___ and the King of
Siam” Flight segment ___ d’oeuvre X-ray shield material Like life Small table on wheels 34 Word often given an incorrect apostrophe 36 Go inside 37 Animal with a snout 38 Like Humpty Dumpty 39 Jocks’ antitheses 40 System of numbering pages 43 Author Sinclair 44 Money in Iran 45 Author Madeleine L’___ 48 Suffix for “Hallow” 50 Harsh cries 51 “Them” or “us” 54 Abated 56 Look the other way 58 Spanish doctor 62 Knapsack 63 Committee 64 Unit of gene activity 65 Storage space 69 Behaving like a ruffian 70 On Easy Street 71 Money from Thailand 73 Antifreeze, e.g. 74 Allotted (with “out”) 75 Sultanate citizen 76 Peter’s Russian cousin? 78 Genuine, in Germany 79 Wool-coat owners 17 18 24 26 32
80 Joyous hymn 81 Bring forth 82 Tasting like wild meat 84 Crystal of Hollywood 85 Accelerate, as an engine 88 Central vein of a leaf 91 Arable place 93 Assumed names 95 Clung 96 ___ de Janeiro 98 Refusal to conform 102 Doesn’t quite believe 104 Burrowing animal 106 Language with click consonants 107 Like a member of 109-Across 109 “Fernando” singers 110 Ace or deuce 111 “What am ___?” (auction query) 113 Fail to mention 115 Go-___ 116 One of the Great Lakes 118 Month on the Hebrew calendar 119 Waiter’s handout 120 First man 122 Paddle kin 124 “For ___ a jolly ...”
Last week’s answers
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December 19, 2014
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Friday, December 19, 2014
MILITARY
Homelessness among veterans declining BY JENNIFER HLAD Stars and Stripes
Veteran homelessness has been reduced 33 percent since 2009, but there is still a long way to go before the U.S. reaches “functional zero,” congressmen and veteran service providers said Dec. 11 in a hearing on Capitol Hill. In November 2009, President Barack Obama and then-Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki set the ambitious goal of ending homelessness among veterans “within five years.” Since then, the stated deadline has shifted from the beginning of 2015 to the end of 2015, even as the VA and groups across the country worked to quickly implement Shinseki’s comprehensive plan. A VA inspector general report released earlier this month shows the effort has not been flawless. The VA’s National Call Center for Homeless Veterans missed more than 40,000 opportunities to engage with veterans because of calls going to recordings during peak hours. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla.,
chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said the findings would be unacceptable for any government program, but is particularly problematic for a population that faces significant challenges just to make a phone call. The call center is not Miller’s only concern. He questioned the wisdom of having more than 20 programs “designed to get homeless veterans off the streets and provide them with housing, health care and employment assistance,” in addition to similar programs through the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Labor. But Baylee Crone, executive director for the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, said homeless veterans are not homogenous — they have individual needs. Some of those needs are being served by multiple programs, Crone said, but that doesn’t mean the programs are being duplicated. As the VA has worked to end veteran homelessness, the main focus has been getting
FROM PAGE 4
Wang found that Confucian philosophy about justice, society and leadership had little influence on military decision-making during that era. “I found no evidence to support that Confucius’ culture restrained Chinese aggressiveness,” he said. “When China decided to use military force, it was all about a realistic assessment about the balance of power between China and its adversaries. When China was strong, it preferred to use military force against military adversaries. When China was weak, it would shift to a defensive posture.” One example was the Great Wall, which is actually a series of walls built over 2,000 years, the first of which is largely eroded. The Ming Dynasty was relatively powerful during its first 50 years, during which no construction of the Great Wall took place, Wang said. Emboldened, China engaged in at least eight military campaigns against the Mongols during that period. “Around the year 1470, when Chi-
veterans off the streets, the leaders of veteran service organizations said. But a significant number of homeless vets have severe mental health, substance abuse or other issues and, for them, housing without treatment is dangerous, said Phil Landis, president and CEO of Veterans Village of San Diego. Landis said the “housing first” model is “an admirable and reasonable idea for many veterans,” but that treatment programs and transitional housing must remain available for those who need it. Several veterans who were placed in HUD-Veteran Affairs Supportive Housing too soon have relapsed and gone to prison, Landis said. And one 27-year-old veteran who was doing well in a long-term residential treatment program was forced out after he received a 100 percent disability rating from the VA, putting him above the income cap. About 25 percent of veterans may never get to the point where they can live balanced, self-sustaining lives in permanent housing without ongoing care, the advocates said.
RICK VASQUEZ /Stars and Stripes
Experts on homelessness and veterans testify Dec. 11 on Capitol Hill. From left are Baylee Crone, executive director at the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans; Steven Berg, vice president for programs and policy, National Alliance to End Homelessness; John Downing, chief executive officer at Soldier On; Phil Landis, president and CEO of Veterans Village; Casey O’Donnell, chief operating officer, Impact Services Corp.; and Dr. Jon Sherin, executive vice president for military communities and chief medical officer, Volunteers of America. Ending veteran homelessness “is not a moment; it’s a moving target,” Crone said, and as the number of veterans on the streets declines, organizations must be even more diligent to continue the momentum, prevent future homelessness and ensure that needs are met. Some advocates said homelessness will never be eradicated, but Casey
‘ When China was powerful, it was more
aggressive, and when China was declining, it became more defensive.
’
Yuan-kang Wang author of “Harmony and War: Confucian Culture and Chinese Power Politics”
nese power declined, they started to build the Great Wall,” he said. It was also during that early period that Ming troops annexed Vietnam as a province before being overthrown after a harsh 20-year occupation. The legendary voyages of Zheng He during the early 15th century are routinely presented as an example of China’s exceptional lack of aggression as compared with empire-minded Western powers. The voyages were indeed spectacular. Zheng He’s fleet included more than 200 ships, all larger than the Santa Maria sailed by Christopher Columbus. Fifty such ships, accompanied by many smaller boats, carried about
27,000 soldiers to Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and East Africa. However, as Wang and other researchers have noted, a fleet that size sailing into ports inspired an awe that left little need for use of actual force. “If it’s only for peaceful exploration, why would you need to bring that many soldiers with you?” Wang said. Indeed, Zheng He used force when awe or intimidation failed. Wang said a king on the island now called Sri Lanka was captured and returned to China because he refused to acknowledge Chinese supremacy. There is also evidence from a civil war in what is now Indonesia that the fleet’s army
O’Donnell said “functional zero” — enough housing and treatment programs for all veterans who need them — is possible. O’Donnell is with Impact Services Corp., a jobs, housing and economic development group in Philadelphia. He expects the city to make that goal by the beginning of 2016. hlad.jennifer@stripes.com Twitter: @jhlad
supported the side recognized by China. The fleet also expanded the system of tributes paid to the Ming by leaders of other countries. Victoria Tin-bor Hui, an associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, said expansionist emperors were glorified in dynastic records, just as they are hyped as the “hallmark of greatness” in China’s movies and television dramas today — even if such images negate Xi’s message that China was historically powerful but peaceful. Wang said such assertions of powerful-but-peaceful history sound good at a rhetorical level, but one only need look at the reaction of other countries in the region to judge reality. “China’s Asian neighbors clearly don’t see it that way,” Wang said. “They are actually quite concerned about China’s rise in military power because what if China uses it against them in the future?” olson.wyatt@stripes.com
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December 19, 2014
STARS AND STRIPES
ourhistory
Personal Accounts of the Construction of the Alcan Highway (Part 3) in 1942/1943
By Major Mike Dryden USAR Retired
T
he 1942 construction phase of the Alcan was conducted by the Army Corp of Engineers as well as some surveying and quartermaster units, all of which were either organic or under the operational control (OPCON) of Alaska Command. Beans and bullets units had to re-invent the traditional logistical supply chain model devised by the best and brightest REMFs (ask any Army combat soldier what that acronym means) in the War Department.
Troops of the World War II Black Regiment who helped build the ALCAN Highway. Photo provided by Phil Oglesby III.
In a nut shell, the hard work of building a pioneer road from Dawson Creek to Fairbanks was by done by the Army and the improvements by civilian contractors in 1943 on a cost plus basis. The construction had the highest priority since the inland passage was vulnerable to Japanese submarine attack. The False Flag diversion for the Midway attack, the invasion of Attu and Kiska, necessitated the inland route to be built ASAP. While researching for a historical fiction novel where my main character joins the Army soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, I found many sources that chronicled the construction in technical terms but tended to dismiss the worker bees version of the daily life in a construction camp. During Black History month in February, I cover in as much detail as possible the contributions made by the African American solders whose outstanding performance during these critical times for our country paved the way for the integration of the Armed Forces by President Truman in 1948. Most of the following recollections are from Pioneer Road by Donna Blasor-Bernhardt, an Alaskan living in Tok. One of several memories comes from 2nd Lieutenant Clyde S. Deal of the 93rd
Building the Alcan Highway
www.nlm.nih.gov
continued on page 9
December 19, 2014
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ALASKA EDITION
alcan cont. General Services Engineer Regiment. Please save your “butterbar” jokes for the club. The RLOs (real live officers) have heard them all. “The 93rd Engineers were activated in 1941 somewhere in Louisiana, with colored draftees and white officers (the old army). I joined Company D in the Yukon about April, 1942, shortly after being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant. We worked for about nine months on the Alaska Highway. In November, 1942, we had completed work on the highway and were building what we thought would be our winter camp; log cabins for the entire company. The site was at Judith Creek about fifty miles south of Whitehorse, Yukon. One day we were building away, when we heard an unusual horn blast. Everyone rushed out to the road to see what was going on. Coming over the flat was a Greyhound bus heading north to Whitehorse! Until then we hadn’t known, but now did, that the road was open! One of the passengers (all of them were military) was a 2nd lieutenant who later joined our company. I think the range of service of the 93rd is of note. After working on the Alaska Highway, the 93rd was moved to Chilkoot Barracks, an old army post near Skagway, Alaska. In March, 1943, our regiment was moved out to the Aleutians. The 2nd Battalion (companies D, E, and F) was posted to Unimak, the next island beyond Dutch Harbor. We served there until August, 1944, where we shipped home to Fort Lewis, 50-60 miles south of Seattle, Washington.
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in Japan, our unit was backed out of Burma to India and in October, we boarded a vessel in Calcutta and headed home. We were deactivated in November, 1945, and all of us were sent home.
neer road was finished and turned over to the civilian contractors, all the troops were redeployed into many different units. Some remained in Engineer units while others were separated and sent to maneuver units as causality replacements.
I’d say the 93rd had the best of extremes… twentyseven months in the Yukon, Alaska, and the Aleu- From reading first hand recounts from the men who In February or March, 1945, we shipped out again, tians, followed by seven or eight months in India and built the Alcan, little that they did in the remainder of this time to the India Burma theater. By this time I Burma. “ WWII topped the experience of building the Greatest had gained rank and was Company D commander. In Highway in the nation. August, 1945, when the atomic bombs were dropped As the last few paragraphs indicated, when the pio-
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December 19, 2014
December 19, 2014
11
STARS AND STRIPES • STARS
Friday, December 19, 2014
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PAGE 11 Rondha Gibson, the widow of Stanley Gibson, a Gulf War veteran with PTSD who was fatally shot by a Las Vegas police officer in 2011, said the $1.5 million settlement she received from the police department last year has provided no emotional relief. “I still feel lost,” she said.
VIGILANT PATIENCE
M ARTIN KUZ /Stars and Stripes
Deadly encounters between distressed vets, police highlight the need to defuse confrontations
C
BY M ARTIN KUZ Stars and Stripes
LAS VEGAS louds of smoke plumed from the spinning wheels of a white Cadillac pinned between two Las Vegas police cars. Officers had ordered the driver to exit the vehicle, and when he failed to comply, they devised a plan to flush him out. One officer would fire a beanbag round to shatter the car’s rear window. Another would then shoot a canister of pepper spray. A witness filmed the standoff in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the early hours of Dec. 12, 2011. The video shows the plan mutate into a killing. The beanbag round was fired. Less than a second later, before the pepper spray could be shot, a third officer blasted seven rounds from his assault rifle into the Cadillac. The car’s wheels stopped, the smoke dissipated. Four bullets had hit the driver. He was unarmed.
Stanley Gibson, a 43-year-old Army veteran, served in the Gulf War two decades earlier and remained besieged by post-traumatic stress disorder. He carried home memories of picking up charred corpses along the so-called Highway of Death, where U.S. forces bombed Iraqi troops retreating from Kuwait near the war’s end in 1991. Gibson’s paranoia and depression had deepened in the weeks before his death. Records show he had run out of antianxiety medication days earlier, after a Veterans Affairs clinician canceled an appointment that would have enabled him to obtain a refill. His behavior in his final hours revealed a man astray in his own mind, unmoored from the THE FINAL world around him. His death was preventable for several reasons, and three years later, in part because of what happened to him, 30 officers sat in a training course on de-escalation strategies for veterans with combat trauma. Gibson’s name went unspoken during the two-day program this past summer at the headquarters of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. But the fallout from his shooting has influenced reforms to the agency’s deadly force policies and its tactics for handling veterans in crisis. “There were so many things with Mr.
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Gibson that, if the cards had fallen a different way, he would be alive,” Deputy Chief Gary Schofield said. “It was a tragic situation, and so you want to learn from that.” The killing of Gibson mirrors the fate of veterans involved in a string of police standoffs in recent years. Most of them suffered from mental disorders linked to their service, including Gibson and former Army Sgt. Issac Sims, 26, an Iraq War veteran gunned down in May by officers in Kansas City, Mo. An ongoing federal review of hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs has exposed chronic delays endured by patients seeking primary, mental health and specialty C H A P T E R care. The problems coincide with rising demand for services at the VA’s nearly 1,000 hospitals and clinics nationwide. The need for behavioral health treatment has spiked, with some 1.3 million veterans receiving care in 2012, an increase of almost 400,000 from 2006. Gibson, like Sims, faced delays in his VA treatment near the end of his life. Struggling with PTSD, he soon wound up in a fatal standoff with law enforcement, one he may have been too confused to comprehend. SEE PAGE 12
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STARS AND STRIPES • STARS
PAGE 12
FROM PAGE 11
The recurrence of that pattern across the country has prodded more police agencies to train officers in defusing confrontations with troubled veterans. In Las Vegas, mindful of Gibson’s death, Schofield advocates an approach that could be described as vigilant patience. “It’s a matter of our people understanding that ‘I need to make an arrest’ isn’t always the answer,” he said. “The first and foremost thing you’ve got to do with a veteran is listen and, when it’s possible, try to slow things down.”
Slow, difficult process Gibron Smith wondered if he had seen behavior caused by post-traumatic stress disorder without recognizing the symptoms. In a six-month span in 2012, the Las Vegas patrolman responded to three calls from casinos about a drunk, belligerent patron. The incidents involved three different men. Each had served in Iraq or Afghanistan, and each displayed a blend of high-volume patriotism and obstinance. “They would keep saying stuff like, ‘I’m an American! I served my country!’ When I tried to get them to do what I asked, I really had a hard time reaching them,” Smith said. After their anger subsided, the men turned distraught, yet even on the ride to jail they refused to divulge what bothered them. “It was like there was a wall between us.” Smith talked during a break during the department’s deescalation training that taught officers about the effects of traumatic brain injuries and PTSD. The course, organized by the Upper Midwest Community Policing Institute, prodded Smith to reconsider the conduct of the three men. “I’m learning that the way veterans deal with what they’ve experienced is more complicated than I realized,” he said. “It might be that you have to talk with them for hours to get at what they’re feeling.” The community policing institute, a nonprofit based outside Minneapolis, Minn., has held the training for more than two dozen police agencies since 2011. A previous session in Las Vegas took place on Dec.
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Live your life with theirs in mind.
11, 2012, one day shy of the one-year mark that patrolman Jesus Arevalo killed Gibson. The program receives funding from the office of Community Orienting Policing Services, or COPS, an agency within the Department of Justice. Two years ago, Las Vegas police officials engaged in a collaboration with the COPS office to reform the department’s deadly-force policies. The effort arose after Metro officers killed 12 people in 2011, a single-year high for the agency capped by Gibson’s death. The instructors of the deescalation course, most of whom are retired law enforcement personnel, acquaint officers with behaviors linked to combat trauma and possible explanations behind them. A veteran experiencing a flashback might veer from lane to lane while driving to evade an imaginary suicide car bomber, or “patrol” his property while wearing body armor and carrying a firearm. Educating police that the actions of a veteran in crisis may suggest habits of survival rather than intent to harm can help officers to recalibrate #44 their responses and potentially avoid using force. Standing before the Las Vegas group, Bill Micklus, a former longtime police officer in Minnesota, discussed the importance of talking — and, more so, of listening — when faced with an agitated veteran. “Let’s do everything we can not to take them on in that moment,” he said. Projected on a white screen behind him was a list of points to bear in mind in such scenarios, among them “Anticipate a slow and difficult process” and “Open lines of communication.” “We’ve got the skills, we’ve got the equipment, but they have some of that training and skill set, too,” he said. “Maybe it would make sense for us to keep it in our strength area. That would be verbal de-escalation.” The instructors at once cultivate awareness that combat changes a person and deflate the misperception of veterans as ticking time bombs. “I don’t want you coming out of this class thinking people are screwed up just because they went to war,” said John Baker, a former Marine, who works as a defense attorney in Minneapolis and represents former
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December 19, 2014 Friday, December 19, 2014
GIBSON
FAMILY/AP
Rondha Gibson received a $1.5 million settlement from the Las Vegas police department for the death of her husband, Stanley Gibson, a Gulf War veteran who was shot and killed by the police.
The white Cadillac in which Gibson was killed is parked in the driveway of a friend. launchers — has flowed to local and state police agencies nationwide under a federal PHOTOS BY M ARTIN KUZ /Stars and Stripes program established in 1997. (A Department of Defense Bullets tore holes in Stanley Gibson’s jacket when he was report shows that agencies in gunned down by a Las Vegas police officer on Dec. 12, 2011. Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, have received 60 The man had begun shouting assault rifles and 21 night-viservicemembers. angrily around midnight at no Emphasizing that most sion devices since 2006.) one in particular, alarming his veterans do not suffer from Some police officials justify neighbors. None of the officers combat trauma, he added, “It’s the equipment as a reaction had attempted to approach important to remember PTSD to the advanced weapons and him to talk. Observing that the is treatable and that the large tactical training of combat man was unarmed, Bonner majority of people who have it veterans. A sheriff’s sergeant walked up to him and soon do recover.” in Indiana recently told a TV found out he had grown tired reporter that returning troops and simply wanted to go to bed. “have the ability and knowlWithout force Fifteen minutes later, he went edge to build IEDs” — improThe course provides a kind back inside his home and the vised explosive devices — “and of cultural sensitivity training, officers left. to defeat law enforcement bridging the divide between “There’s a problem with the techniques.” the military and civilian word ‘veteran’ having kind of Together let’s start At the same time, a reflexworlds that exists within law a stigma with cops,” Bonner ively aggressive approach to enforcement despite the sursaid. “You do have to beplanning careforwithyour standoffs veterans in face similarities of weapons, ful with veterans because they crisis may provoke violence uniforms and ranks. The vasthave the training and knowfamily’s future. rather than deter it. Tossing ness of the divide surprised how to do damage. But most of a stun grenade into a home Sam Bonner when he joined the time what it comes down where a veteran has barMetro in 2009, three years to is listening. If you give them ricaded himself, perhaps after deploying to Iraq with the the time and space to wind believing he’s back at war and Army. down, a lot of problemsName, can beapproved designation under siege by the enemy, can Now a major in the Army solved without force.” Agent, New York Life intensify the delusion. National Guard, he recalled The militarization ofInsurance law en- Company Schofield, the deputy chief, an incident from his first year forcement has gained national cautions against using force as CA/AR Ins Lic # (if applicable) with the department. A Metro attention since August, when a first resort. “If you’re runAddress sergeant, aware of Bonner’s protests erupted after a police ning around and harming or Phone # military experience, called officer shot and killed teenager killing people, we’re not going him to a scene where several Michael Brown in Ferguson, Email to have a conversation. We’re officers, clutching Tasers and Mo. going to stop the action,” he guns, had set up a perimeter Billions of dollars in surplus around a veteran standing in military equipment — armored said.
Live your life with theirs in mind.
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December 19, 2014
ALASKA EDITION
13
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 VA K B L M FT L B L G H M T M B FX G H K T L XT L H G ,
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Hint: This person was the first vice president to attend cabinet meetings and give speeches around the country. Last week’s answer: “All must admit that the reception of the teachings of Christ results in the purest patriotism, in the most scrupulous fidelity to public trust, and in the best type of citizenship.” President Grover Cleveland
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CIVILWAR THEGREATWAR WORLDWARTWO TheseFIRSTAMENDMENT are not our reliance against the resumption of tyranny in our fair land. INDEPENDENTPAPER EUROPE Stars Stripes PACIFIC MIDEAST --A. Lincoln All of themAFRICA may be turned against our liberties, BELGIUM GERMANY September 11, 1858 ENGLAND Previous week’s ITALY JAPAN withoutGermany SOUTHKOREA Civil Warat Edwardsville Europe Alaska making us stronger orEdition weaker for the struggle. Speech HEROS USEDITION ALASKAEDITION answers The Great War Italy Pershing OurPacific reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. PERSHING MARSHALL
World War Two Mideast Japan Marshall Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty Independent Africa South Korea of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Paper Belgium as the heritage Heros First US have Edition Destroy England this spirit, and you planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Amendment
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
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FROM PAGE 12
“But if you drop the weapon, or there’s no weapon to begin with, that’s when the dynamic changes. You have to learn how to talk with people.” Three years ago, during the standoff with Stanley Gibson, a breakdown in communication among officers, compounded by a radio glitch, contributed to his death. Unaware that the plan to flush Gibson out of his car was underway, Arevalo, the officer who killed him, apparently mistook the beanbag round fired at the Cadillac as a gunshot coming from within the vehicle. (Arevalo was placed on administrate leave and later fired.) Before the shooting occurred, however, officers spent barely an hour attempting to persuade the unarmed Gibson to surrender, even as he posed little threat with his vehicle pinned by two squad cars. “His death was a catastrophic failure all the way through,” Patrick Burke said. Burke, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2011 as an Army reservist, belongs to the Office of Internal Oversight, a division created as part of Metro’s internal reforms. He regards Gibson’s shooting as the culmination of a string
NOTETOREADERS This installment of “Casualties of the After-War” was inadvertently omitted from last week’s issue of Stars and Stripes U.S. weekly edition.
ONLINE:
To read the previous installments, go to stripes.com/go/casualties
of mistakes that began with delays in his VA care. Nonetheless, with greater patience, the officers at the scene could have averted the violent outcome. “There has been positive change because of what happened,” he said. “We’re not perfect. But hopefully, with a bit of luck and a lot of training and a lot of compassion, that won’t happen again.”
‘I still feel lost’ Las Vegas police were involved in a total of 24 shootings in 2012 and 2013, compared to 25 in 2010 alone, a one-year record for the department. Still, for those who knew Gibson, the efforts to change Metro’s deadly-force policies offer cold comfort. His longtime friend Bill Hill keeps the white Cadillac in his driveway. Bullet holes pock the doors and interior. A faded brown stain splays across the driver’s seat headrest. “I feel like he was slaughtered,” Hill said. The lone occasion that Rondha Gibson, Stanley’s widow, visited Hill’s home to look at the car, she broke down and turned away. Last year, the police department paid her a $1.5 million settlement. (The agency paid his mother $500,000 earlier this year.) The money has done nothing to salve Rondha’s emotional wounds. “I still feel lost,” she said. “I feel exactly the same way as the day it happened.” The black leather jacket that her husband wore at the time of his death hangs on a wall in her Las Vegas home. The front is frayed from bullets. “They took my heart.”
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
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Steve Sanson, a friend of Rondha Gibson’s and the director of the nonprofit advocacy group Veterans in Politics, criticized Metro’s reforms as “cosmetic.” He referred to an officer’s wounding of an unarmed man late last year in a shooting outside a convenience store; the man has sued the department. “What needs to be changed is the mindset of the cops,” Sanson said. “I understand that there are times that you need to use deadly force. But if somebody’s unarmed, why are you shooting them?” Sanson, who served six-year stints in the Army and the Marines before retiring from the military in 1998, lamented what he referred to as a “war on veterans” in America. “The craziest part is how these vets escaped death on a daily basis in the war zone,” he said, “and then they came home to the country they were defending and got killed by somebody who’s supposed to serve and protect them.” Schofield recognizes that words will never heal the lingering anger of Gibson’s family and friends. For Metro’s officers, he wants the memory of the shooting to endure as motivation to better understand veterans in crisis. “I doubt that anybody got up that morning, put on their uniform and said, ‘I want to be involved in a critical incident that results in a veteran sitting inside his car getting shot to death,’ ” he said. “But the fact is, he was shot. That’s a lesson that shouldn’t be forgotten. We owe that to our veterans.” kuz.martin@stripes.com Twitter: @MartinKuz
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
December 19, 2014 Friday, December 19, 2014
Ushering in the season with carols and creche
K
neeling on the living of scraping tools, sponges, tiny room rug, I open the paintbrushes and little colored large cardboard box bottles of ceramic stain lined and plunge my hands up on the counter. into a pearly froth of StyroWhen she was done, my dad foam packing. I am searching transported the pieces back to for treasure, heirlooms handed be fired in the hobby shop kiln. down to me from my parents. Then he would pour and bring My hand closes on somehome the next pieces for Mom thing solid and cool. I pull it to paint. The bottom of each from the protective billows and is marked with the initials my remove a layer of bubble wrap parents shared: “J.H.” When to reveal a ceramic shepherd. finished, the figures became Placing him gently on the the quintessential Nativity sofa, I reach in to find more: scene to me. They still are. a kneeling camel, a wise man About 10 years ago, my holding a golden box in his mom gave the creche to me for outstretched hands, Mary, JoChristmas. It has moved along seph, the manger, two standing with me for much of my life, camels, some sheep, more wise and putting it in place ushers men and shepherds, the angel, in the season at our house. Unher fragile wings wrapped in packing it in a new home after an extra layer of padding. Soon a move is cause for another the cast is complete. layer of celebration, when each On the stereo, Nat King Cole precious piece emerges intact. croons, “The first Noel the As the holidays progress, a angels did say, was to certain bright and sparkly Christmas poor shepherds in fields as they tree becomes the center of atlay.” It’s the album I always tention in our home, especially choose for this ritual of Christas the pile of mas decorating. SPOUSE CALLS gifts beneath The rough wooden stable is it grows. We already in place, time to add admire the the people. The baby is at the lights and center, his parents turned to our eclectic gaze at him. The smaller anicollection of mals and shepherds are inside ornaments. the stable while the Magi and Wrapping their beasts of burden look in and mailing, from the outside. Finally, I put shopping the angel in place, suspended and bakabove the shingled roof on a ing, parties Terri Barnes strategically and events placed nail. demand By this time Join the conversation with Terri at time and stripes.com/go/spousecalls Nat is singattention. In ing, “O, Little those busy Town of Bethdays, I lose lehem, how still we see thee lie. the sense of reverence for the Above thy deep and dreamless mystery of Christmas I felt sleep, the silent stars go by.” in early December when I I’ve seen these sweet, solemn unwrapped the figures of the faces on most of the ChristNativity set. mases of my life. My parents A day or two might go by made the nativity figures at Ei- before I stop to look again at elson Air Force Base, Alaska, the serene and familiar faces where we were stationed when all turned toward the baby in I was in first grade. the manger. Creating the creche was a I’ve seen them so many joint operation for my parents. times I have them memorized, With two little ones at home, the details my mom intended they developed a tag-team and some she didn’t. The assembly line. Dad went to the angel’s gold banner proclaims hobby shop on base and poured “Gloria in exelsius Deo,” with a ceramic slip into the molds a misspelling. A small flaw in the few pieces at a time. When they antique finish on Mary’s face were dry enough to unmold, looks like a tear on her cheek. he wrapped the greenware Tonight, I think I’ll put on pieces carefully in newspaper Nat King Cole again. I want and brought them home for to hear him sing, “Come and Mom to smooth, and then stain behold him, born the king of after they dried completely. I angels … O, come let us adore was fascinated with the array him, Christ, the Lord.”
December 19, 2014 Friday, December 19, 2014
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FREELANCE WRITERS Stars & Stripes U.S. Edition – Alaska is looking for freelance writers to add a local flavor to our newspaper. Two specific areas of interest are “Veteran Spotlights”, focusing on Alaska Veterans, and “Explore Alaska” focusing on Alaska adventure. Other topics will be added as well.
If you have a desire to help tell our readers about our local Veterans, Alaska’s outdoors, and other newsworthy topics, please email SteveA@AK.net. Please include some writing samples.
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December 19, 2014 Friday, December 19, 2014
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