Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Showing posts with label Military Arlington Natl Cemetery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Military Arlington Natl Cemetery. Show all posts

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Rob Richards, a Marine sniper who served three tours in Afghanistan, has been laid to rest in Arlington Cemetery

Rob Richards, a Marine sniper who served three tours in Afghanistan, has been laid to rest in Arlington Cemetery

Semper Fi brother.

Rob Richards, a Marine sniper who served three tours in Afghanistan, has died of an accidental overdose of painkillers. Read the full story, by Washington Post writer Greg Jaffee, here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/marine-sniper-is-saluted-as-more-than-the-video-scandal-that-defined-him/2015/02/21/e0a8492a-b7ba-11e4-9423-f3d0a1ec335c_story.html?tid=hybrid_default_strip_2

Mr. Jaffee did a good job with a difficult story and for that I salute him… Thank you.

In part, Jaffee wrote, “His three combat tours in Afghanistan had been boiled down to a 38-second video clip, played and replayed on YouTube more than a million times…

[…]

“More than two years later — long after the rest of the country had moved on to other scandals — Richards, 28, died at home and alone from an accidental painkiller overdose.

Now an ammunition can carrying his cremated remains sat on the table of a hotel bar in Arlington, Va., as his family, friends and fellow Marines swirled around it.

Almost everything about war is complicated, messy or morally fraught; in this case even more so. A Marine vilified by his country’s leaders and court-martialed for “bringing discredit to the armed forces” would soon be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, the country’s most hallowed ground. On this mid-February night before the funeral, dozens who knew Richards beyond those 38 seconds gathered to celebrate his life…”

[…]

As the months passed, Richards worried that the 38 seconds would follow him for the rest of his life. The investigation and court-martial took nearly two years before the Marine Corps offered Richards a plea deal that reduced him a rank to corporal and allowed him to leave the military with an honorable discharge. Richards felt abandoned by the Marine brass who had heaped praise on his unit when they were killing Taliban. He had hoped to get into defense contracting after the military, but he worried that no one in the industry would ever hire him.

“He felt backed into a corner,” his wife recalled. “He always said, ‘It’s all I’ll ever be known for.’

After the military, Richards fell into a depression and became addicted to opiates. Eventually, he went through drug counseling. He and his wife separated briefly and then reunited after he had finished treatment.

[…]

A few days before he died, Richards and his wife had put in an offer on a house near Orlando, where they both had attended high school. They had already begun to box up their possessions for the move from their home in Camp Lejeune, N.C.


She came home from work that evening and found his body on the floor outside the kitchen. Later doctors would speculate that his weakened liver had been unable to metabolize the prescription painkillers that were slowly building up in his system.

There are many reactions to seeing death: Raechel’s was disbelief. “Not like this,” she would remember screaming as she stood near her husband. “Not like this.”

Greg Jaffe covers the White House for The Washington Post, where he has been since March 2009.

God Bless him for his service to our country.


*****

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Arlington National Cemetery – Firsts of the heart


As Memorial Day approaches, it is significant to note that today, on May 13, in 1864; the first soldier was buried at Arlington House, also called the Custis-Lee Mansion. We now know the property as Arlington National Cemetery and it is now the revered final resting place of over 320,000 stories of the heart.

[…]

The history of Arlington Cemetery before it was officially designated as a national cemetery on June 15, 1864, by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, is of additional interest as it is steeped in the history of the families of some of America’s more memorable historic namesakes.

Read the entire column here: Arlington National Cemetery – Firsts of the heart

http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=3157

http://tinyurl.com/r88gd8

Photo credit: 1864 May: Arlington, Va. Brig. Gen. Gustavus A. DeRussey (third from left) and staff on portico of Arlington House. MEDIUM 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. CALL NUMBER LC-B817- 7215 REPRODUCTION NUMBER LC-DIG-cwpb-03890 DLC (digital file from original neg.) LC-B8171-7215 DLC (b&w film neg.) SPECIAL TERMS OF USE No known restrictions on publication. PART OF Selected Civil War photographs, 1861-1865 (Library of Congress) compiled by Hirst D. Milhollen and Donald H. Mugridge, Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 1977. No. 0756

20090513 SDOSM TT brief Arlington National Cemetery

Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/
Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoff.com/
Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: http://www.westgov.net/

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

This week in The Tentacle for May 13 2009


This week in The Tentacle

Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Arlington National Cemetery – Firsts of the heart
Kevin E. Dayhoff
As Memorial Day approaches, it is significant to note that today, on May 13, in 1864; the first soldier was buried at Arlington House, also called the Custis-Lee Mansion. We now know the property as Arlington National Cemetery and it is now the revered final resting place of over 320,000 stories of the heart.

Alfred Wallace and Me – Part Two
Tom McLaughlin
Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia – The London scientific community viewed Alfred Wallace as a redneck, or, in their lingo of the day, a collector. These were people who went out to the tropics with a butterfly net or gun and brought back animals that were sold to the public.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Pope's New Failures
Roy Meachum
Vatican hypocrisy couldn't be clearer than in the reaction to Notre Dame inviting Barack Obama to address this year's commencement and receive an honorary degree. This president's "mortal sin," in church critics' eyes, derives from his support of abortion rights and for embryonic stem cell research.

Advice from The Voice of Experience – Part 4
Nick Diaz
This is the conclusion of my series on buying a used motorcycle. In my 39 years in the sport of motorcycling, I’ve bought only two new motorcycles, and that was back in the early 70’s. Buying a used motorcycle is one of the most challenging, yet satisfying activities a person can engage in.

Monday, May 11, 2009
Electoral Expectations
Richard B. Weldon Jr.
A recent set of news articles out of Anne Arundel County raise the issue of voter expectations for elected officials.

Anticipating the Air Show! – 2009
Steven R. Berryman
Time to break with your hibernation from the winter blahs; stop getting upset about the politics of Democratic deconstruction and more illegal immigrants for a time. Andrews Air Force base, in nearby Prince George’s County offers the best air show in the region once a year, and it’s this coming weekend!

Friday, May 8, 2009
Shoved Aside Campaign Promise
Roy Meachum
It seems to me calmer on the domestic front, for all the noises and agitation aimed at Barack Obama. Keeping his cool, his trademark, has helped the nation to settle down.

The Great American Melting Pot
Joe Charlebois
Throughout the 1970's, while a youngster would watch the typical Saturday morning television offerings from Hanna-Barbera and Warner Brothers cartoons, there were a series of three minute segments that were educational. These spots covered a wide spectrum of topics such as grammar, history, government, math, economics and science. Of course everyone knows these extended spots as Schoolhouse Rock.

Thursday, May 7, 2009
Rumpelstilskin and Hagen’s Hypocrisy
Joan McIntyre
I will be the first to admit that I could be wrong, but I think I see a method to the madness of Commissioner Charles Jenkins’s recent actions on waste-to-energy (WTE). When final votes were cast, I was less than happy. A decision needed to be made and it wasn’t. Mr. Jenkins threw us a curve.

Dipping Into Your Wallet Again
Chris Cavey
Have you ever had the creepy feeling you were being watched? Perhaps you have experienced the frustration of fighting with the “computer” and coming up on the short end. Or maybe you have felt oppressed by governmental regulation, like you are spending every day in a long line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Does Obama Raise Your Fears?
Bill Brosius
For the first time in my long lifetime, I fear for the future of my country, the United States of America.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Planned obedience…or else
Kevin E. Dayhoff
As of last week it appears that a marriage between Chrysler and Fiat SpA may eventually happen; this in spite of the few reports that surfaced recently that the marriage was off once Fiat realized the extent that Chrysler’s labor contracts were, how shall we say politely, less than helpful. Gee…

Swine Flu – Protection and Precautions
Michael Kurtianyk
As of this writing there are over one thousand confirmed cases of the Influenza A (H1N1) virus, commonly known as Swine Flu (more on this gentle misnomer later). The majority of the cases are in Mexico and the United States.

Alfred Wallace and Me – Part 1
Tom McLaughlin
Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia – The monsoon season had settled in and my exploring the nearby rain forest had come to a halt. Blinding 24-four hour rains and muddy, slippery paths drove me indoors searching for activities. It was time to pursue my interest in Alfred Russell Wallace.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
My Kind of Chief
Roy Meachum
Kim Dine was a stranger until ex-Mayor Jennifer Dougherty hired him to run the Frederick Police Department. We did not rush into each other's arms. I was a noted critic of his new boss. After experiencing predecessor "Ray" Raffensberger's need to manipulate, I took a wait and see stance.

'...and awaaaaaay we go!"
Farrell Keough
"I guess there is nothing that will get your mind off everything like golf will. I have never been depressed enough to take up the game, but they say you can get so sore at yourself that you forget to hate your enemies." - Will Rogers

Monday, May 4, 2009
Rebranding the Grand Old Party
Richard B. Weldon Jr.
Last week, Eric Cantor (R., VA) the Republican Whip in the U.S. House of Representative, spoke to the Republican faithful in Frederick. Congressman Cantor, arguably the fastest GOP rising star in the House, laid out a cogent argument for sticking to the core principles of the party and denying the clamor for fundamental, structural change.

If TheTentacle.com were Facebook
Steven R. Berryman
Not being in the mood to write, blog post, or comment, I started to consider some plausible excuses for skipping my Monday Tentacle column for this week.

20090513 SDOSM This week in The Tentacle

Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: www.kevindayhoff.net http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/
Kevin Dayhoff Art: www.kevindayhoff.com
Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: www.westgov.net