Excerpt:
Widow: After 8 deployments, Army Ranger takes own life
JOINT BASE LEWIS MCCHORD, Wash. - A soldier's widow says his fellow Army Rangers wouldn't do anything to help him before he took his own life - after eight deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Army found Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann's body at a training area of Joint Base Lewis McChord a few weeks ago.
A spokesman for the base tells KOMO News that the nature of the death is still undetermined. But Staff Sgt. Hagemann's widow says her husband took his own life - and it didn't need to happen.
"It was just horrible. And he would just cry," says Ashley Hagemann.
Ashley says her husband Jared tried to come to grips with what he'd seen and done on his eight deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"And there's no way that any God would forgive him - that he was going to hell," says Ashley. "He couldn't live with that any more."
Ashley says her Army Ranger husband wanted out of the military.
"He just wanted to know what it felt like to be normal again," she says.
Staff Sgt. Hagemann had orders to return to Afghanistan this month for a ninth tour of duty.
Instead, on June 28, Ashley says her husband took a gun and shot himself in the head on base. She claims the Rangers never took his pleas for help seriously.
"There's no way that they should not have been able to pick up on it," Ashley says. "When he's telling them, he's reaching out ...."
And on Friday she found out she's not alone in wanting to speak out.
Mary Corkhill Kirkland lost her son Derrick to suicide more than a year ago.
She says doctors at Madigan Army Hospital considered him a low risk for suicide despite three earlier attempts. They sent him back to his unit - where he hanged himself.
Mary says she thinks the Army absically killed her son.
"My son did not want to die. He wanted help. He was crying out for help," she says.
Now Mary Kirkland is reaching out to Ashley Hagemann in her grief.
"You're in good hands, you're not alone here," Mary tells her.
"It's so nice to meet somebody else who understands," says Ashley. "Thank you so much."
KOMO News has contacted the 75th Ranger Regiment about Hagemann, but there is no comment as yet.
The two women are joining forces with several veterans and active-duty soldiers to speak out about what happened with Sgt. Kirkland - and what's being done to prevent further soldier suicides.
The Army found Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann's body at a training area of Joint Base Lewis McChord a few weeks ago.
A spokesman for the base tells KOMO News that the nature of the death is still undetermined. But Staff Sgt. Hagemann's widow says her husband took his own life - and it didn't need to happen.
"It was just horrible. And he would just cry," says Ashley Hagemann.
Ashley says her husband Jared tried to come to grips with what he'd seen and done on his eight deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"And there's no way that any God would forgive him - that he was going to hell," says Ashley. "He couldn't live with that any more."
Ashley says her Army Ranger husband wanted out of the military.
"He just wanted to know what it felt like to be normal again," she says.
Staff Sgt. Hagemann had orders to return to Afghanistan this month for a ninth tour of duty.
Instead, on June 28, Ashley says her husband took a gun and shot himself in the head on base. She claims the Rangers never took his pleas for help seriously.
"There's no way that they should not have been able to pick up on it," Ashley says. "When he's telling them, he's reaching out ...."
And on Friday she found out she's not alone in wanting to speak out.
Mary Corkhill Kirkland lost her son Derrick to suicide more than a year ago.
She says doctors at Madigan Army Hospital considered him a low risk for suicide despite three earlier attempts. They sent him back to his unit - where he hanged himself.
Mary says she thinks the Army absically killed her son.
"My son did not want to die. He wanted help. He was crying out for help," she says.
Now Mary Kirkland is reaching out to Ashley Hagemann in her grief.
"You're in good hands, you're not alone here," Mary tells her.
"It's so nice to meet somebody else who understands," says Ashley. "Thank you so much."
KOMO News has contacted the 75th Ranger Regiment about Hagemann, but there is no comment as yet.
The two women are joining forces with several veterans and active-duty soldiers to speak out about what happened with Sgt. Kirkland - and what's being done to prevent further soldier suicides.
http://ivaw.org/blog/ivaw-la-rising
Excerpt:
IVAW at LA Rising!
published by Jose Vasquez on 08/09/11 2:09am
Posted to:
Members of the Los Angeles chapter were joined by organizers from the Operation Recovery Campaign to attend the LA Rising festival at the Memorial Coliseum. The event, headlined by Rage Against the Machine, was aimed at bringing awareness to social and political issues including the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.The show was opened by Muse, Rise Against, Ms. Lauren Hill, Immortal Technique, and El Gran Silencio.
IVAW was invited by RATM guitarist Tom Morello to participate in the "re-education camp" - a tent area that was set up at the Coliseum to house all of the social action groups that were invited to the event. IVAW-LA chapter president Cameron White was given 20 ticket by RATM to invite veterans to come to the event, help spread IVAW's message and enjoy the music.
IVAW's promo video was selected by the participating artists and featured at the show right before RATM played their song Testify (starts at 0:48).
Earlier, the band Rise Against dedicated their song Hero of War to IVAW (starts at 1:32).
They also discuss why they support IVAW in this clip from RATM's Guerilla Video series (starts at 6:29):
The event helped IVAW-LA re-invigorate the chapter, which has been inactive for over a year. Members were able to connect with civilians, veteran and active duty military members and people attending the concert from all over the US. Members from the local chapter were very excited to get involved and the event was highly successful.
The Los Angeles chapter will be participating in the art project "LA vs. War" in September. This project will be similar to the "YO! What happened to Peace?" project from 2008.
http://www.wearechange.org/?p=9083
Excerpt:
London riots coming to the US?
Posted on10 August 2011.
There is a lot of unrest in the US on how our government has been handling matters lately. Should the riots in England serve as a warning for the US? Spending on wars and cutting social programs are things that both the US and UK are doing. Luke Rudkowski, an independent journalist, and Kathryn Dill, lead reporter for Truth March, tell us if the US will be seeing riots of their own and how the US could potentially prevent them.Follow Lauren on Twitter: http://twitter.com/LaurenLyster
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