Volume 7, No. 17 ŠSS 2015
FRIDAY, A PRIL 10, 2015
HELPING For information please contact Waverly Williams 803-774-1237 or waverly@theitem.com
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As the VA struggles, a social worker and a military wife oversee model efforts that give vets the time, space and security they need to repair their lives. Pages 2-4
At Eagle’s Healing Nest, a residential veterans campus in central Minnesota, veterans take part in a variety of therapy classes, including art, writing and meditation, that aid them in repairing their lives. JIM MONE /AP
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VETERANS
Where they ‘have each other’s backs’
Residential campus for vets a peaceful refuge for healing BY M ARTIN KUZ Stars and Stripes
M
elony Butler credits everyone else for the success of Eagle’s Healing Nest. Everyone else credits Melony Butler. In 2012, she founded the residential veterans campus on the grounds of a defunct reform school in Sauk Centre, Minn., a small town about 100 miles northwest of Minneapolis. She conceived the Nest as a refuge where former servicemembers of any era could live for as long as they wanted while searching for purpose and peace. Since then, Butler, working six or seven days a week, has welcomed more than 200 veterans, almost half of whom served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Some stay for a few weeks, others never leave. There is no time limit, no restriction on when they can come and go, no expectation that a fractured life will mend in 30 days. “The idea is for them to have their own place to heal at their own pace,” she said. “It’s not a shelter. It’s not a hospital or clinic. It’s their home, and they’re a family.” Butler, 48, has defied the numerous skeptics who doubted she could sustain the Nest when it opened three years ago with space for 15 veterans. She has stitched together public grants and private contributions to cover costs and renovate four of the 20 buildings on the bucolic, 125-acre site. The capacity
has expanded to 75 and will reach 200 by next year as more buildings are restored, with one or two reserved for women. (The campus took in its first female veteran this month.) The growth has caught the attention of veterans advocates in Montana and Texas, who have contacted Butler about replicating her model in their states.
The setting The Nest’s $35 daily rate is more like a suggested donation. Many veterans pay less based on a sliding scale of their income or benefits, and none is turned away. The majority are referred by Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals in the nearby cities of St. Cloud and Minneapolis. Most of the rest
JIM MONE /AP
Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran Dan Klutenkamper, shown with his dog, Odie, has lived since 2013 at Eagle’s Healing Nest in central Minnesota, where he has bonded with older veterans. arrive from elsewhere in the Midwest; a few have traveled from as far away as Florida and New York.
‘ The idea is for them to have
their own place to heal at their own pace. It’s not a shelter. It’s not a hospital or clinic. It’s their home, and they’re a family.
’
Melony Butler Eagle’s Healing Nest founder
Each veteran receives a separate room furnished with a donated bed, desk and other items, and those who are physically able help with chores. They prepare group meals and clean the buildings, shovel sidewalks and mow lawns, feed horses and plant crops on the property’s farm. Butler and her staff arrange VA appointments, job interviews and classes at area colleges and vocational schools, along with regular trips to the local movie theater and bowling alley. The daily tasks and other activities further Butler’s mission to aid veterans in repairing their interior lives. The Nest offers therapy classes in art, writing and meditation, and
licensed clinicians visit to provide substance abuse, marriage and family counseling.
A sense of trust Two or three times a week, the veterans gather for a peer support meeting. The group discussions cultivate a sense of trust that has eluded them since their days in uniform. “They have each other’s backs like they did when they were in the military,” said Butler, whose husband deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan with the Army National Guard. Two of her husband’s sons from a prior marriage also served combat tours, and one returned from Iraq plagued by depression that pushed him to the edge of suicide. His struggle moved Butler to create a space for veterans to look after their own. “They know the best way to help one another,” she said. “To see them find hope again, to find family again, is profound.”
Newfound will to live For Dan Klutenkamper, the empathy of fellow veterans rekindled his will to live. The retired Army sergeant copes with post-traumatic stress disorder, the invisible legacy of his two tours in Iraq and a third in Afghanistan. SEE PAGE 3
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VETERANS FROM PAGE 2
After his honorable discharge in 2011, he bottomed out in his parents’ basement, self-medicating with alcohol and marijuana. Thoughts of suicide clenched his mind. “Being here has given me the time, space and security to understand my problems,” said Klutenkamper, 33, who moved into the Nest in fall 2013. He joined the resident staff last year and assists with admissions, peer support sessions and crisis intervention. “It’s such a relief just knowing I don’t have to be in a rush to get my stuff in order and be out the door,” he said. Klutenkamper has bonded with the Nest’s older veterans, particularly those who fought in Vietnam, drawing strength from their survival of the after-war. “We went to different places, but the same sort of bad stuff that happened to them happened to us,” he said. “You learn from them how to not let the experience destroy you.” Butler’s faith in the power of veterans helping veterans extends to handing them control of the Nest’s future. Late last year, she transferred the property to a trust formed by a group of former servicemembers with whom she has worked to build the campus. Together, they will continue to nurture her ethos of compassion without borders. “If we believe in veterans, they start to believe in each other,” she said. “They didn’t give up on their country. We can’t give up on them.” kuz.martin@stripes.com Twitter: @MartinKuz
Courtesy of Fred Gusman
Fred Gusman, founder of The Pathway Home, a residential treatment program in California for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans struggling with combat trauma, emphasizes social reintegration as part of the recovery process.
Dedicated to showing vets The Pathway Home BY M ARTIN KUZ Stars and Stripes
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red Gusman has been around post-traumatic stress disorder so long that he began treating the condition before it officially
existed. In 1978, as a social worker with a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital near San Francisco, he created the nation’s first residential therapy program for troops who fought in Vietnam. He listened as the men described the torment of living with a disorder that the American Psychiatric Association failed to recognize as a formal diagnosis until 1980. More than three decades later, Gusman remains devoted to the cause, seeking to save a new generation of veterans from the mental anguish of combat. He runs The Pathway Home, a residential treatment program for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans that he founded in 2008, soon after leaving his position as a senior director with the VA National
‘ I don’t know what my life
would be like if I hadn’t wound up there. I would be nothing. I’m not sure I would be alive.
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Zach Skiles former Marine who attended The Pathway Home Center for PTSD. His nonprofit program occupies a building on the verdant grounds of the Veterans Home of California in Napa Valley, the heart of the state’s wine region. The serene backdrop contrasts with the inner chaos of those who arrive to confront the feral memories of war. “When I started talking with Vietnam veterans, there was resistance to the idea that vets coming back could suffer psychological problems,” said Gusman, who joined the VA in the late 1970s after serv-
ing six years in the military. “Now, we know they do. But society still has a long way to go in understanding the complexities of what people experience when we ask them to go to war for us,” he said. Gusman and his staff work with three classes of 15 veterans each year. Most show up with their lives in ruin. Nearly three-fourths have attempted suicide, and close to two-thirds have been homeless at least once in the previous year. Almost half are divorced. The veterans live for free in Pathway’s relaxed, dormlike setting during the fourmonth program. They gain familiarity with each other in the first few weeks as they take part in art, writing, meditation and yoga classes intended to steady the mind. Gusman then begins a daily trauma therapy session that forces each member of the group to unearth their worst moments from a battlefield they have yet to leave behind.
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VETERANS
McDonald tells of progress, challenges Secretary says VA is in middle of the largest reorganization in its history BY H EATH DRUZIN Stars and Stripes
SNOWMASS VILLAGE, Colo. — During eight months at the helm, Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald has struggled with a dysfunctional department, a critical Congress and burgeoning rolls of veterans in need of help at a time of belt-tightening across the federal government. The national furor over revelations of patients on secret wait lists at the Phoenix VA Health Care System has not died down since McDonald assumed the VA’s top post July 20. His department faces criticism for overprescription of narcotics and a new rule that eliminates a long-running informal system to register disability claims. Stars and Stripes sat down with McDonald on the sidelines of the annual Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, where he met participants and discussed care for wounded veterans. McDonald made the stop following visits to California and Montana, where he was continuing his recruitment push to fill the VA’s shortage in health care professionals. These are highlights of the interview: Stars and Stripes: We’re right around the anniversary of the Phoenix VA scandal breaking. What’s changed the past year at VA?
FROM PAGE 3
Taking it on “Fred is so direct that you get to the point where you’re upset with him,” said Zach Skiles, a former Marine who enrolled in the program in 2010. “But he does that because he knows you have to take your PTSD on or you’ll never learn to deal with it.” Skiles deployed to Iraq in 2003 and lost four friends in the span of two weeks. He mustered out of the Marines a year later and — beset by flashbacks of his friends dying, bouts of paranoia and insomnia — he slowly descended into the void of his mind. By 2009, he found himself
Wait times are down nationally; more than 90 percent of our appointments are within 30 days. That’s good. Now, I’ll tell you, we still have more to go. We’ve hired about 8,500 people in the last seven months; of those, about 900 are doctors. I’ve increased the salary bands for doctors so they’re competitive and we’re going through an analysis of all jobs at VA to make sure they’re competitive. There are people who still look at the VA with some distrust. The numbers that are out there are VA numbers, so what would you say to people who don’t trust the numbers that point to that progress? Give us a try. In my first national press conference last September I gave out my cellphone number and I get calls from hundreds of veterans every single day. Now, I’m getting roughly 35 percent of the calls … where the message I’m getting is, “You changed my life, you helped me get in.” The disability claims (backlog) is down 65 percent and we’re committed to getting that down to zero. Homelessness is down 33 percent and we’re committed to getting that to zero by the end of the year. So we’re making progress and the majority of employees at VA are inspired by the mission. One thing related to the claims process is the new rule eliminat-
estranged from loved ones, unemployed and homeless. As he languished on a VA waiting list to receive counseling, his caseworker pointed him toward Pathway. “Going there fundamentally changed my life,” said Skiles, 32, who lives in San Francisco. He recently earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and leads equine therapy and meditation classes for veterans. “The biggest thing I took away is that you have to be an active participant in your recovery,” he said. “Fred’s going to say, ‘You know what has to be done. Now do it.’ ” Gusman’s approach has yielded encouraging results. In a survey last year of 100 graduates of the program, 93
ing the informal claims process. Some veterans advocates have filed suit, claiming the process will hurt veterans and may be a way for the VA to fix the claims backlog at the expense of those they are meant to serve. Are you worried that the VSOs and VA are splitting and how do you respond to those who are critical of the new process? I’ve worked very hard to strengthen relations with the veterans service organizations, all of them. There is a very strong relationship between all of us. I understand their issue about the standard form, but I would also tell you the standard form will help us eliminate the backlog and will also help us do better things for veterans. When you submit your income tax, do you submit it on a napkin or do you submit it on a form? I don’t think it’s a gross expectation to think that people should use standard forms. What’s next? We’re in the midst of the largest reorganization in our history. We call it MyVA. We have no hope of caring for veterans if we don’t care for employees … we’re telling them what Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see.” We know we can’t do this by ourselves and we’re happy to embrace every strategic partner we can. It allows us to care more for veterans but it’s also, in my opinion, the morally
reported that the quality of their life had improved since attending Pathway. Contributing factors included making stronger ties with family and friends, avoiding legal problems and continuing to receive treatment from VA or private clinicians. Gusman ascribes the success in part to an emphasis on social reintegration that counters the self-isolation associated with PTSD. His staff coordinates fly fishing, hiking and other activities with community groups to reacquaint veterans with the civilian world. Pathway also holds a twicemonthly support group for their families and friends to smooth the reacclimation process.
right thing for us to do … Fifteen percent of veterans got less than honorable discharges and, by law, Congress does not allow us to care for these veterans. What you’ll find is in the ’70s, at least when I was in the Army, many people with drug addictions and posttraumatic stress, before we even knew what post-traumatic stress was, were forced out of the service with less than honorable discharge. You mention the three Phoenix whistleblowers who got compensation for retaliation. There are a lot of employees I talk to who say they’re still afraid of stepping forward. Tell them to contact me. Wherever I go I meet with whistleblowers. We will not tolerate retribution. We cannot improve unless we have people criticizing (us). If you hear of someone who thinks they are being retaliated against, give them my phone number, give them my email address. Do you expect more compensation for whistleblowers who were retaliated against? Certainly. We’re following the law. We’re in touch with these people. We’re doing the best we can and we’re going to do even more to make sure that we embrace self-criticism and we make the changes we need to make. druzin.heath@stripes.com Twitter: @Druzin_Stripes
Providing guidance “We didn’t provide Vietnam veterans any guidance for how to go back home,” Gusman said. “That’s why so many of them didn’t or wound up leaving again. “We want to make sure with these veterans that they and the people around them know what to expect.” The counseling regimen that Gusman started at the VA in 1978 was replicated in dozens of its hospitals and clinics across the country. Likewise, Pathway has inspired other programs. The National Intrepid Center of Excellence, which opened in 2010 in Bethesda, Md., drew on his model when shaping its
treatment for PTSD. Last year, the VA created its first residential treatment center exclusively for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, a program that mirrors Pathway’s methods of care. Gusman regards the efforts as crucial to helping veterans set down war’s internal burdens. “We want to empower them so they’re not slaves to a condition they did not choose,” he said. “We want them to have their lives back.” Skiles credits Pathway with giving him that chance. “I don’t know what my life would be like if I hadn’t wound up there,” he said. “I would be nothing. I’m not sure I would be alive.” kuz.martin@stripes.com Twitter: @MartinKuz
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EUROPE
PHOTOS
BY
R YAN C RANE /Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force
F-15C Eagles taxi into position at Leeuwarden Air Base, Netherlands, last week. F-15C Eagles from the Florida Air National Guard’s 159th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron are deployed to Europe as the first National Guard theater security package.
Guard F-15 training unit lands in Europe BY JENNIFER H. SVAN Stars and Stripes
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — One day, the Air National Guard’s F-15C pilots were providing air defense for the United States. The next, they were jetting off to Europe to help deter Russian aggression. The Florida- and Oregon-based guard units touched down on the Continent last week to take part in the U.S. military’s Operation Atlantic Resolve. The unit will stay at the Netherland’s Leeuwarden Air Base for about a month, where it will conduct training with the Dutch air force before moving on to Bulgaria. While at Leeuwarden, the pilots will participate in the annual Frisian Flag exercise with a range of aircraft from other European countries, including Finnish and Spanish F-18s, German Eurofighters, and Polish and Dutch F-16s, said Col. Gerbe Verhaaf, the base commander of Leeuwarden. “It’s a great opportunity for us,” he said of hosting the guard’s F-15s. The eight-hour flight from Jacksonville International Airport in Florida to Leeuwarden was the easy part. The real challenge kicked in long before their departure on March 31, when the official orders came down in
mid-February that F-15s and personnel from Florida and Oregon Air National Guard units would be part of the second theater security package to deploy to Europe for Atlantic Resolve. For the 125th Fighter Wing at Florida, which represents the majority of the approximately 200 personnel in the package, it’s the unit’s first overseas deployment in about 15 years, said Lt. Col. Paul Reedy, the 159th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron commander. “It’s been in the planning phases since the January time frame,” Reedy said in a phone interview April 3 from Leeuwarden. “It wasn’t official until mid-February. For us, it was a pretty tight turn.” The unit didn’t have to switch up its training, as it would before a combat deployment, since “this was a training deployment,” Reedy said. But that didn’t mean the preparing, planning and packing was anything less. “It was a very big exercise in logistics for our unit, working with (Air Mobility Command) and everybody else to get all of our equipment here,” Reedy said. The unit needed to transport 10 C-17s worth of equipment, he said, mostly the tools and spare parts needed to maintain the jets and keep them flying for what’s expected to be a six-month
An F-15C Eagle pilot guides his jet into position at Leeuwarden Air Base, Netherlands, on March 31. deployment. One unique aspect of deploying Air National Guard assets is that personnel will swap out about halfway through the deployment cycle. That way, the unit can maintain its currency for its 24hour alert mission status in the States, Reedy said. The equipment and planes will remain for the duration, he said. Guard assets got the nod for this deployment because they were in the best position to fill the need at the time, said Air Force Maj. Gen. Eric Vollmecke, the Air National Guard assistant for the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and U.S. Air Forces Africa. “The way it worked out, Jacksonville and Portland, the timing was good,” he said.
Also supplementing the package are personnel from the Massachusetts and California Air National Guards, as well as active-duty airmen from USAFE. About 40 percent of Reedy’s personnel are full-time guardsmen back in Jacksonville, he said. But “a lot of our members left their civilian jobs temporarily to come over,” he said. “This was a voluntary activation,” he added. “Nobody was directed to come.” Reedy said he had no trouble finding volunteers. “This is an extraordinary opportunity to come to Europe and operate in a different environment” and work with other nations throughout the region. svan.jennifer@stripes.com
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MILITARY
Friday, April 10, 2015 In a 19th-century treatise, Col. William Winthrop, one of the most important influences in the formation of U.S. military law, wrote that officers convicted of misbehavior before the enemy were “paraded in front of the command bearing a placard inscribed with the word ‘coward’ ” and then “drummed out of the service.” “These are charges from the 18th century,” said Eugene Fidell, Bergdahl’s defense lawyer. “It struck me as piling on.” The last time Article 99 was raised in such a high-profile case was in the wake of the 1968 seizure of the spy ship USS Pueblo by the North Korean navy. The skipper, Cmdr. Lloyd Bucher, surrendered the Pueblo without firing a shot, becoming the first American officer to give up his ship since the War of 1812. After the crew was released, a Board of Inquiry comprising five admirals recommended that Bucher be court-martialed under Article 99 for surrendering the ship, which was armed with only two .50-caliber machine guns. But public opinion supported Bucher, and Navy Secretary John Chafee overruled the admirals, declaring that the skipper and his crew had suffered enough after having been beaten and starved during nearly a year in captivity. “It’s one of those battlefield charges that got carried over from the Articles of War,” said Victor Hansen, a retired Army lawyer and a professor at the New England School of Law in Boston. The Articles of War were regulations drawn up to govern the conduct It’s one of those of the land and naval forces. They were battlefield charges supplanted in 1951 by that got carried over the Uniform Code of Military Justice. from the Articles “It’s kind of been in of War. It’s kind of there kicking around. been in there kicking It’s rarely charged,” Hansen said of the around. It’s rarely misbehavior charge. charged. It’s got all “It’s got all these very these very old notions old notions — shame, running — shame, cowardice, cowardice, away. I’m assuming the running away. prosecutors as well as Victor Hansen the defense attorneys a retired Army lawyer and a are scratching their professor at the New England heads.” According to his School of Law in Boston charge sheet, Bergdahl misbehaved in front of the enemy by leaving his observation post in Paktika province on June 30, 2009. His absence endangered his fellow soldiers and those who were ordered to search for him in hostile territory, according to the charges. Conviction under Article 99 can result in even more severe punishment than the desertion charge Bergdhal faces. The maximum punishment for misbehavior before the enemy is life imprisonment, compared with up to five years in prison, a dishonorable discharge, reduction in rank to E-1 and loss of pay and allowances for desertion. Sentences imposed in some previous misbehavior cases have been much shorter than life. In one case, two soldiers guarding a tank farm in Vietnam were convicted and sentenced to five years of hard labor after being found guilty of misbehavior because they supposedly played dead during a North Vietnamese attack, thus endangering the tank farm. An appellate court, however, ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prove that their actions constituted any misconduct, let alone misbehavior in front of the enemy. The guard shack was indefensible, the soldiers’ weapons either jammed or were incapable of rapid fire and both had been wounded by a grenade. “Playing dead’ is not much different from ‘taking cover’; neither is misconduct, per se,” the court said.
‘
THE RARE CHARGE OF
MISBEHAVIOR Bergdahl faces little-known, seldom-used Article 99 BY NANCY MONTGOMERY Stars and Stripes
I
f Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl were convicted of “misbehavior before the enemy” a century ago, he might also have been subject to a humiliating send-off. His sword might be broken or his insignia ripped from his uniform in front of his unit.
Along with desertion, Bergdahl was accused last month of violating the little-understood Article 99 of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice — misbehavior before the enemy — for abandoning his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and thereby endangering his unit. Although desertion cases are not uncommon, few military lawyers have ever prosecuted, or defended, a charge of misbehavior before the enemy.
’
SEE PAGE 14
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MILITARY FROM PAGE 12
Another Vietnam War soldier received 18 months in jail and a dishonorable discharge for violation of Article 99 after he refused to move out with his unit on a combat mission. “The accused refused, stating that he was afraid and was tired of being shot at, that his family would rather he be secure than dead, and that he would rather go to jail than face the enemy,” according to the appellate court decision that upheld the conviction. During the Korean War, an Army private — an ammunition bearer — was convicted of misbehavior after he ran away from the front line. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison but his punishment was cut by half on appeal. The only servicemember accused of desertion in the Iraq War was never charged with misbehavior, even though he walked away from his post near Fallujah in June 2004. Marine Cpl. Wassef Hassoun was sentenced to two years in prison and a dishonorable discharge in February after pleading guilty to leaving his post in Fallujah and then deserting his unit again at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in January 2005. In both instances, Hassoun fled to his native Lebanon. The Army has not explained why the convening authority, U.S. Forces Command’s Gen. Mark Milley, chose to add the misbehavior charge against Bergdahl. Legal experts speculated that the charge under Article 99 could be a hedge in case the prosecution cannot prove the desertion charge, which requires proving that Bergdahl intended to leave his unit permanently. The additional charge also could reflect the danger that soldiers faced
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Magazine helps kids cope with military life
Bergdahl hearing scheduled for July O BY JON H ARPER Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON — Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will face a preliminary hearing in July into charges that he deserted his unit and engaged in “misbehavior before the enemy” in Afghanistan, the Army announced last week. The Article 32 preliminary hearing will take place July 8 at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where Bergdahl is stationed. The Army set the date after consultations with Bergdahl’s defense attorneys, U.S. Army Forces Command said in a statement. The soldier is charged with one count of Article 85 and one count of Article 99 under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Bergdahl spent nearly five years in captivity after walking away from Combat Outpost Mest-Lalak in Paktika province, Afghanistan, in June 2009. After leaving his post, the soldier fell into
while searching for Bergdahl, who was captured by the Haqqani group and was exchanged last May for five Taliban commanders held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Hansen, the Boston legal professor, said that an Article 99 charge carries a special meaning. “It is a bit personal,” Hansen
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the hands of insurgents. Some fellow soldiers have said that servicemembers died while searching for him. Bergdahl was freed by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani Network in May after the Obama administration agreed to release five Taliban leaders from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The deal was highly controversial, and some Republican lawmakers accused President Barack Obama of endangering national security by releasing the militants. Obama and the Pentagon brass defended the swap, arguing that American troops shouldn’t be left behind, regardless of how they might have fallen into enemy hands. Bergdahl remains on active duty and has held an administrative position at Joint Base San AntonioFort Sam Houston since he was released from medical observation last year. harper.jon@stripes.com
said. “I think there’s an effort to make a statement.” The case now goes to a preliminary hearing to examine the evidence against Bergdahl. At the end of the hearing, the investigative officer will make a recommendation to Milley whether the case should proceed to court-martial. montgomery.nancy@stripes.com
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from military children of all fficially, April is the ages. The publication is availMonth of the Military able electronically, and a print Child, but being a version is in the works. military kid knows no For the spring edition, one season nor age. It’s an expeof the contributors is an 18rience that lasts a lifetime. year-old military daughter Army spouses Janine Boldrin, who wrote about exploring in a writer, and Amy Crispino, a Hawaii. Another college-aged teacher, wanted to make that military child created an illusexperience as positive as postration of the Space Shuttle. sible for their own children and In addition to pointing out others. the positives of military life, Together they created a the magazine is intended to magazine, Military Kids’ give military kids a context for Life, a platform for military difficult times. For example, a children to express their indi14-year-old whose father was viduality and find connections injured by an improvised exaround the globe. The second plosive device wrote an essay edition of the quarterly magaabout coping with that experizine, which features content ence for another feature called from military children, debuts “In Your Words.” this month. “We’re being proactive,” “Military kids, like other Boldrin said. “We’re not trykids, really want to tell their ing to pick up the pieces after stories,” Boldrin said. “They’re things hapnormal kids. They want to SPOUSE CALLS pen, but give be celebrated. We want to them the celebrate their life, and show confidence them the challenges and ways in their comto overcome those challenges munity and in a fun way.” help them The magazine is part of a to manage company, founded by Boldrin these diffiand Crispino called Chameleon cult situaKids, which includes a webtions. site, thechameleonkids.com, “We often for military parents. The site Terri Barnes discuss our includes a blog and parenting military news, as well Join the conversation with Terri at spouse comas a portal to munity. Not Military Kids’ stripes.com/go/spousecalls so often do Life magazine. we discuss it The magawith our kids, to give them that zine is bright with illustrations same sense of community,” she and photos, many contributed said. by military children. Each edi“We spent a lot of time on tion has a theme — “Exploramilitary brat Facebook pages tion and Space” for the spring to absorb what adult brats edition — and will include were saying about their childfeature articles about people, hood,” Boldrin said. “What places, adventure, cooking and we heard over and over again craft projects. The magazine was a longing to go back and targets readers ages 8-13, but see the places they lived ... We Boldrin said the whole family also picked up on a sense of can participate in the stories disconnectedness, of trying and activities. to make sense of what they “My daughter, who is 6, experienced. As adults, they couldn’t read the articles on are reflective, trying to draw her own, but we did the craft conclusions about how this life together and enjoyed reading has affected them.” the articles together,” Boldrin With Military Kids’ Life, said. “It’s also an outlet for the Crispino and Boldrin aim to older kids who would like to help military kids connect and reflect on their experiences as formulate a community idenmilitary kids” as contributing tity, without being heavy-handas writers, artists or photograed, so having military children phers. as contributors is important All the contributors to the to them. “We don’t preach,” magazine have some military Boldrin said. “We draw from connection, and at least 50 perthe words they give us.” cent of the content is directly
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