Veterans for Common Sense

Media Training Now Required for Iraq-Bound Soldiers

NEW YORK As the U.S. military approaches nearly two years in the Iraq conflict, media training for soldiers going into the war zone has been stepped up, becoming mandatory for Army troops since October, E&P has learned.

“Talking point” cards for military personnel, meanwhile, are being updated regularly as the war progresses — often as much as once a week — to keep up with the conflict’s changing issues and the proximity of embedded reporters. Among the current talking points: “We are a values-based, people-focused team that strives to uphold the dignity and respect of all.”

Soldiers preparing for deployment in hostile or critical areas have received some kind of media training in handling press inquiries since as far back as the first Persian Gulf War, according to several military press officers. Such training has also included pocket cards with suggested talking points for the combatants, which advise them how best to promote the military operation and avoid awkward or confrontational interviews.

“As situations happen, you will have ever-changing talking points, as much as every week,” said Capt. Jeff Landis, a Marine Corps public-affairs spokesman. “They are tailored to the situation.”

The media training consists of one or two hours of briefings by public-affairs specialists from the Defense Information School at Fort Meade, Md. In the past, such training was provided only to those Army units who requested it, according to Sgt. Don Dees, an Army spokesman based at the Baghdad press center. But, since October, it has become a mandatory requirement for all deploying Army troops.

“The Army just recently made it a common soldier task; it is one of the requirements they go through,” Dees said. “It is in our best interest to provide them that training.”

While the Marine Corps has made such training a requirement for years, it has taken on more importance in recent months as well. “There is more heightened awareness with this particular conflict,” Capt. Landis told E&P, referring to the Iraq operation. “It has taken a higher priority.”

During training, soldiers are urged to speak with the press as a way of promoting the positive elements of the operation, but not to lie or speak about issues with which they are not familiar.

“It is a standard part of deployment preparation,” said Lt. Col. Gerard Healy, an Army spokesman based at the Pentagon.

Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Department of Defense spokesman, compared it to any other basic training. “It is a common task, much like firing your rifle,” he said. “It has emerged over the past 10 years as a necessary skill.”

The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., noted this week that the first talking point in a slide show for troops at Fort Bragg was: “We are not an occupying force.”

A list of “wallet-card” talking points given to a group of Marines heading to Iraq, obtained by that newspaper, included:

• The Marine Corps is trained, resourced, and ready to accomplish its missions. We are committed to the cause and will remain in Iraq as long as we are needed.
• The fight in Iraq is tough, but we will remain steadfast and not lose heart.
• We are moving forward together with the Iraqi government as partners in building a future for the sons and daughters of Iraq.
• Coalition forces will help our Iraqi partners as they build their new and independent country and take their rightful place in the world community.
• Our troopers and their families are our greatest and most treasured resource.
• The Corps is a national institution — it has never failed to do the will of the American people.

In media training, meanwhile, soldiers are advised not to discuss classified information, to confine comments to their area of knowledge, and to stay on the record. Other advice includes talking to the interviewer, not the camera; avoiding acronyms, profanity, or a “no comment”; and not arguing or answering a question they do not want to answer.

But not everyone is supportive of the military’s media preparation. Sig Christenson, president of Military Reporters and Editors, said most of the advice is good common sense, but he said some of the talking points could lead soldiers to misrepresent the situation or even lie.

Christenson, a military-affairs writer at the San Antonio Express-News, cited the talking point about the military units being “trained, resourced, and ready.” “What if it is untrue?” he asked, pointing to the recent questioning of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld by a soldier about a lack of armored protection for vehicles. “If that isn’t the truth, they should make it clear that the soldiers and Marines should say so.”

He also objected to having soldiers always provide a positive outlook. “If they are being told to find a way to talk about the positive, they are not talking about facts,” Christenson said. He also called the suggestion to avoid acronyms or profanity “public-relations silliness.”

Capt. Landis responded to such criticism by defending the promotion of positive aspect, but stressing that no one was being asked to lie. “These are not for use for propaganda means,” he told E&P. “They are the truth.”

Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is a senior editor at E&P.

Thirty Percent of Iraq War Veterans May Need Psychiatric Care

The nation’s military system is quietly preparing for one of its toughest missions in decades: ensuring that soldiers who return from Iraq get the help they need to deal with the stress and horrors of war.

Military officials and mental health providers predict that up to 30 percent of returning soldiers will require psychiatric services — a number not seen since the end of the Vietnam War.

And, after several years of double-digit increases in federal funds for veterans health care, the 2005 inflation-adjusted budget is only 1.5 percent higher than last year’s.

“The system is tremendously challenged,” said Fred Gusman, who founded the nation’s first combat stress center in 1977 and is director of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Menlo Park.

In coming months and years, new combat veterans will struggle to adjust to life back home, to go from leading troops to managing a family, from trusting no one to confiding in someone.

There are returning soldiers who feel weakened, off balance. New veterans may go out of their way to avoid crowds. They may drive through red lights, because stopping in Iraq meant potential ambush. Most soldiers will quickly regain their footing, but others will need help, some for a lifetime. All will need time and understanding, experts say.

Gusman, who is a Vietnam veteran, said the nation should feel a deep responsibility to “those who gave their all and now might need our all.”

The Pentagon estimates that as many as 100,000 new combat veterans nationwide will suffer from mental issues ranging from depression and anxiety to the more debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder, characterized by angry outbursts, flashbacks, nightmares and hypervigilance. An estimated 900 service members have been evacuated from Iraq since the start of war due to psychological problems, according to the Defense Department.

Military hospitals and clinics will be challenged, as will the families and communities of returning soldiers.

“You can’t be in a war zone and not need readjustment when you come home, ” said Kuuipo Ordway, a trauma specialist with the Concord Vet Center.

“When they get into a combat arena, they are in a survival mode,” said Ordway, who since October 2003 has met with soldiers returning from Iraq. “The neurons in the soldier’s brain shift. When they’re in a war, the soldier has to hear and smell and do everything better. They repress a lot, but their memory is keeping track.”

Jack Stowe spent a year in Iraq, returning home May 1, 2004. Stowe, a member of a National Guard transportation unit out of San Bruno, was the commander of a company that provided convoy escorts to Army trucks around Baghdad, Tikrit and Mosul. His unit constantly came under fire from insurgents and navigated roads sometimes rigged with improvised explosive devices.

When he returned, his family was thrilled to have him home and the company where he worked installing alarms welcomed him back.

He thought he was fine. He was alive. He had all of his limbs. He was lucky, he told himself.

Soon, though, the problems began. He had nightmares. He felt numb. He couldn’t connect with his wife, daughters, or sisters. Driving to work, he would see a pile of dirt on the freeway and swerve. A bump in the asphalt made him picture insurgents setting a trap.

“Over there, you do your job, you keep feelings to yourself,” said Stowe, 37, who lives in Antioch. “You have to show you are a good leader. If you show fear, your troops will reflect that. I needed to power up to be who the Army put me in the position to be. When I got back, I just shut down.”

Katie Stowe recalls a party on the Fourth of July. Her husband’s sisters were there, as were members of her family. Kids ran around. Everyone was having fun.

“Jack couldn’t even be in the same room with the group,” Katie Stowe said. “I was kind of keeping an eye out for him. I can only imagine what it’s like trying to kill anyone who tries to kill you, being in this mode of always watching and fearing and living in dirt and sand and then coming home and you’re supposed to mow the lawn.”

She says that her husband’s numbness finally led to a call for help. “Jack was scared something was seriously wrong with him. He didn’t want me to tell anyone. He was initially very embarrassed. He said, ‘I didn’t lose a leg. I didn’t lose an arm. Why should I need help?’ ”

Since that point, the two have attended therapy and counseling sessions at the Concord Vet Center. Katie Stowe says her husband is getting better. The nightmares and night sweats persist but seem less intense.

“Jack finally told another soldier he was going to get help and the other soldier said, ‘Oh, so am I and so is so and so.’ ”

The plight of soldiers who survive war but suffer from its memories is not new. The psychological wounds have been chronicled from ancient Greece to World War II, from Vietnam to the first Gulf War. Names given to the mental traumas afflicting soldiers have included “Soldier’s heart,” during the Civil War, and “battle fatigue,” during World War II. The term post-traumatic stress disorder came about in 1985 and was used to describe the tens of thousands of struggling Vietnam veterans.

The military’s mental health system is taking steps to reduce or avert the psychological wounds of war. Soldiers are screened for psychological problems before and after deployment. Unlike in past wars, the military now has combat stress specialists in the war zone.

Sandy Moreno, a psychiatric technician who spent a year in Iraq, worked with troops in the field. She is an Army reservist who was a part of the 113th combat stress company out of Southern California.

“We dealt with a lot of home front issues,” said Moreno, who now works at a veterans center in Sacramento. “We did debriefings with people who had been in critical situations, such as when a unit got ambushed or a unit member was killed.”

She said one of the toughest things for soldiers in Iraq is the reality that there is no safety zone.

“You don’t trust anyone when you’re over there. You live by the idea that you can deal with anything, handle anything.”

Stephen Robinson, a 20-year Army veteran who is now executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, an advocacy group, said: “I know for a fact that the military health care system is ill prepared to deal with the psychological impact of war.”

A study published in July in the New England Journal of Medicine indicated that roughly one in six soldiers returning from the war in Iraq will need psychological counseling as a result of wartime service. Robinson believes the number will rise to one in three.

Jimmy Norris, the chief financial officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system, said in an interview that the federal budget for veterans health care this year is around $30 billion — a 1.5 percent inflation-adjusted increase over 2004.

“Last year there was no anxiety over the budget,” Norris said. “We had a 10 percent year-to-year increase. That was feast time. This year we will be challenged.The bottom line is that we will continue to provide the highest quality of care for veterans. We won’t compromise that.”

Newly returned veteran Antonio Hernandez, who is 35 and lives in San Jose, said he is coping with the night and day changes in his life. He says he is not in treatment, but wouldn’t resist if he began having problems.

Hernandez, an Army reservist who spent 16 months in Iraq, was always on guard. Every day, every night, there was danger. As a convoy escort, he came under constant fire.

Now he manages a Hollywood Video store.

“I do feel lucky to be home,” he said. “But I never get rid of the gory images. I lost my ability to trust. You see cute kids coming at you in Iraq. That could be a decoy. The same with women in their burkas. My kids and wife will never understand what I went through. I’m in my homeland, but I perceive life differently. Every day, there is something that reminds me of what I have been through.”

E-mail Julian Guthrie at jguthrie@sfchronicle.com

Social Security needs to take a back seat to national security

The most important element in war is the soldier. Everything and everyone else must play second fiddle to the guy on the ground who digs the enemy out with the point of his bayonet. This remained the case in the Cold War missile age, and – like it or not – it’s even more so in the nasty hit-and-run fights of today and those down the terrorist track.

Because of “shock and awe,” Napoleon’s time-honored principle “God is on the side of the strongest battalion” no longer applies in conventional war. But it sure relates to the wars of insurgency our grunts are presently engaged in around the globe.

And here’s the rub: The Marines and the Army are stretched well beyond the breaking point – we simply don’t have enough mud soldiers in the ready rack to win these crucial ground campaigns. Without immediate relief, I worry that we’ll soon see a replay of what went down during the Vietnam War: Many of our top soldiers will hang up their rifles and hit civvy street – where the chances of living longer and easier come with the territory, and spouses are infinitely happier because they’re not sweating out every knock on the front door.

If this situation isn’t fixed ASAP, it could result in the finest professional ground force – active duty and Reserve – this nation has ever mustered becoming a mirror of the disenchanted, drugged-out, late Vietnam War crew that was more into fragging officers and smoking dope than fighting the VC.

The brass must deep-six conventional thinking and organize appropriately for the war at hand with Islamic radicals that will probably drag on for decades. Both the Marine and Army active duty need at least a 20 percent immediate increase, bringing the Marines to 200,000 and the Army to 600,000. Not only do our armed forces have to gear up for the long haul, more Special Forces groups are needed as well. And more sweat on the training field must become standard operating procedure rather than the kinder, gentler drill that Army recruits are now served to maintain the low attrition that ultimately raises the casualty rate on the battlefield.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have also broken the Army Reserve and National Guard. More than one-fourth of the troops serving in these theaters are part-time soldiers – many serving a second tour, and some looking hard at tour No. 3.

Yes, these needed changes will cost billions of dollars more per year, but not to worry. If the irrelevant gold-plated Cold War weapons systems – such as obsolete multibillion-dollar ships and trillion-dollar fleets of fighter aircraft designed to shoot down the Soviets, who went down in flames years ago, plus the Marines’ flying albatross, the V-22 hybrid helicopter-airplane, which after more than 20 years of costly development does only two things well: crash and burn – were all canceled, the Pentagon could easily pay for the new boots on the ground from its own hide. And the only losers would be the weapons merchants themselves and the self-serving politicians who have their hands in their friendly local war racketeers’ pockets.

Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly, chief of the Army Reserve, recently stood tall and blasted the Pentagon for its “dysfunctional policies.” He said his 200,000-man unit of part-time soldiers is “rapidly degenerating into a broken force.”

Enlistment and re-enlistment in these two important reserve elements are falling off the charts. Helmly said his Reserve Command is being placed in “grave danger” of not being able to meet future missions and, if nothing’s done, soon won’t be able to meet “requirements.”

Today, the regular Army has about 100,000 nondeployables out of a 500,000-man regular force. The Reserves and Guard dud ratios are even higher. Any civilian corporation that allowed too many slackers, deadwood and deadbeats would belly-up. Since pregnancy, disability and too many single spouses with kids who cannot deploy are a large part of this problem, the Army needs to understand once and for all that we’re at war and can no longer afford the luxury of social experiments.

While Congress studies long-range problems like Social Security, the force that defends America is going down the drain. It’s about time that body got its priorities straight and paid more attention to a higher security – our national security!

Why My Brother Died: After two years, the government has called off its fruitless hunt for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq

This week, the White House announced, with little fanfare, that the two-year search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq had finally ended, and it acknowledged that no such weapons existed there at the time of the U.S. invasion in 2003.

For many, this may be a story of only passing interest. But for me and my family, it resonates with profound depth.

My brother was Sgt. Sherwood Baker. He was a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard deployed a year ago with his unit out of Wilkes-Barre. He said goodbye to his wife and his 9-year-old son, boarded a bus and went to Ft. Dix, N.J., to be hastily retrained. His seven years of Guard training as a forward observer was practically worthless because he would not face combat. All he needed to do was learn how to not die.

He received a crash course in convoy security, including practice in running over cardboard cutouts of children. We bought him a GPS unit and walkie-talkies because he wasn’t supplied with them. In Iraq, Sherwood was assigned to the Iraq Survey Group and joined the search for weapons of mass destruction.

David Kay, who led the group until January 2004, had already stated that they did not exist. Former United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix had expressed serious doubts about their presence during prewar inspections. In fact, a cadre of former U.N. inspectors and U.S. generals had been saying for years that Iraq posed no threat to our country. On April 26, 2004, the Iraq Survey Group, at the behest of the stubborn administration sitting safely in office buildings in Washington, was still on its fruitless but dangerous search. My brother stood atop his Humvee, securing the perimeter in front of a suspect building in Baghdad. But as soldiers entered the building, it exploded; the official cause is still not known. Sherwood was struck by debris in the back of his head and neck, and he was killed.

Since that day, my family and I have lived with the grief of losing a loved one. We have struggled to explain his death to his son. We have gazed at the shards of life scattered at our feet, in wonder of its fragility, in perpetual catharsis with God.

I have moved from frustration to disappointment to anger. And now I have arrived at a place not of understanding but of hope — blind hope that this will change.

The Iraq Survey Group’s final report, which was filed in October but revealed only on Wednesday, confirmed what we knew all along. And as my mother cried in the kitchen, the nation barely blinked.

I am left now with a single word seared into my consciousness: accountability. The chance to hold our administration’s feet to that flame has passed. But what of our citizenry? We are the ones who truly failed. We shut down our ability to think critically, to listen, to converse and to act. We are to blame.

Even with every prewar assumption having been proved false, today more than 130,000 U.S. soldiers are trying to stay alive in a foreign desert with no clear mission at hand.

At home, the sidelines are overcrowded with patriots. These Americans cower from the fight they instigated in Iraq. In a time of war and record budget deficits, many are loath to even pay their taxes. In the end, however, it is not their family members who are at risk, and they do not sit up at night pleading with fate to spare them.

Change is vital. We must remind ourselves that the war with Iraq was not a mistake but rather a flagrant abuse of power by our leaders — and a case of shameful negligence by the rest of us for letting it happen. The consequence is more than a quagmire. The consequence is the death of our national treasure — our soldiers.

We are all accountable. We all share the responsibility of what has been destroyed in our name. Let us begin to right the wrongs we have done to our country by accepting that responsibility.

Dante Zappala is a part-time teacher in Los Angeles. E-mail: dante.zappala@lycos.com

Iraq War Veteran Refuses 2nd Iraq Deployment

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A mechanic with nine years in the Army, including a role in the assault on Baghdad, has refused to return to Iraq, claiming “you just don’t know how bad it is.”

Sgt. Kevin Benderman, 40, said he became morally opposed to war after seeing it firsthand during his first Iraq tour. Now he faces a possible court-martial after failing to deploy Friday with his unit.

“I told them that I refused deployment because I just couldn’t go back over there,” Benderman said Wednesday. “If I’m going to sit up there and tell everyone that I do not believe in war, why would I go back to a war zone?”

Lt. Col. Cliff Kent, a Fort Stewart spokesman, said Benderman was being considered absent without leave because he had orders to deploy to Iraq while the Army processed his conscientious objector claim.

“He was AWOL from the unit’s movement,” Kent said. “Beginning the application process for conscientious objection does not preclude you from deploying.”

Benderman has been reassigned to a rear detachment unit at Fort Stewart while his case is processed, Kent said. Kent said the Army has not decided whether to bring charges against him.

Gaining objector status is a time-consuming process for soldiers, requiring meetings with counselors and a chaplain with lengthy paperwork reviewed far up the chain of command. Under military law, a person must be opposed to war in all forms to be considered a conscientious objector.

“If a person said, `I’m not opposed to war, but I’m opposed to the Iraq war,’ they would not qualify,” said Louis Hiken, an attorney with the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild.

Filing an objector claim does not prevent the Army from prosecuting soldiers for disobeying orders.

In May, a Fort Stewart court-martial sentenced Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia of the Florida National Guard to a year in prison for desertion despite his pending objector application. Mejia filed his claim after refusing to return to his unit in Iraq while home on leave.

In December, a soldier who re-enlisted with the Marines after becoming a Seventh-Day Adventist was jailed for refusing to pick up a gun. Cpl. Joel D. Klimkewicz, 24, of Birch Run, Mich., told his superiors he was a conscientious objector and cited his new religious status. It was rejected in March 2004.

Benderman served in Iraq from March to September 2003 with the 4th Infantry Division based at Fort Hood, Texas. When he later transferred to the 3rd Infantry at Fort Stewart, Benderman said, he was already questioning the morality of the destruction he had witnessed.

“You can sit around your house and discuss this thing in abstract terms, but until you see and experience it for yourself, you just don’t know how bad it is,” he said. “How is it an honorable thing to teach a kid how to look through the sights of a rifle and kill another human being? War is the ultimate in violence and it is indiscriminate.”

Asked why he waited until a week before his unit deployed to file notice of his objector claim, Benderman said, “It takes time for you to make sure that you 100 percent want to do things. This is not something you make a snap judgment on.”

Marine’s parents meet Ceres police

CERES — Andres Raya’s parents prayed Tuesday morning in the liquor store parking lot where, 36 hours earlier, their Marine son shot and killed a police officer and wounded another.

A law enforcement spokesman said officer Sam Ryno’s condition had improved from critical to serious. Sgt. Howard Stevenson was the officer who was killed.

Tuesday night, more than 200 people gathered for a town hall meeting where Stanislaus County sheriff’s Lt. Bill Heyne said authorities had yet to establish a motive for Raya’s rampage, but added they do know “he wanted to die, he didn’t want to go back to Iraq.”

Because of rain, Raya’s parents decided not to walk from the liquor store to the alley where police shot and killed their 19-year-old son in an exchange of gunfire Sunday night.

From the liquor store, the family went to a meeting with Ceres police. Raya’s parents wanted to clear the air about their son’s alleged gang ties, said Rosie Alvarez, Raya’s cousin. And, Alvarez said, Raya’s parents wanted to “begin the healing process.”

Police declined to talk about the meeting. Alvarez described it as “emotional” and “tense” as both sides sought to understand why an Iraq war veteran would gun down police officers after apparently luring them to the liquor store.

It happened just after 8 p.m. Sunday in front of George’s Liquors on Caswell Avenue. Raya had asked liquor store employees to call police, saying someone had shot at him.

Surveillance video shows Raya pacing as he waited for police. He pulled a rifle from under his poncho and shot Ryno, then fired at Stevenson.

The slain officer was 39 and a 20-year veteran of the Ceres Police Department.

Ryno, 50, remained hospitalized at Memorial Medical Center in Modesto. Tuesday, he was talking to fellow police officers as well as family members.

Graffiti at crime scene

Tuesday morning, Raya’s family attended Mass before going to George’s Liquors and the next-door tire shop, still riddled with bullet holes.

Spray-painted graffiti, much of it anti-police, appeared on both businesses and the supermarket across the street overnight, said deputy Jason Woodman, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department.

“There will always be people who will take advantage of an opportunity to benefit themselves and there are always going to be people opposed to law enforcement,” Woodman said.

The Rev. Dean McFalls, who formerly served at St. Jude’s Catholic Church in Ceres and is a friend of the Raya family, called the graffiti “despicable” and said it devastated the family.

“It was really, really hard to see that,” said McFalls, who went to the liquor store parking lot with the family. “There is absolutely no excuse to do something like that.”

Much of the graffiti had been painted over by midday. Among the remaining graffiti was a statement that simply read: “RIP Andy,” the name Raya often was called by friends.

At the Police Department later that morning, a makeshift memorial grew as people dropped off flowers and photos of the two officers.

Alvarez, Raya’s cousin, said police suspected Raya had gang affiliations, based on his tattoos. She acknowledged that she had not seen the tattoos, but said other family members told her that the tattoos signified “Latino and Chicano pride.”

“It was a display of honor for our culture,” she said. “He was not a banger. That just wasn’t him.”

Raya’s parents said Monday that their son, when he came home for Christmas and New Year’s, indicated that he did not want to go back to Iraq.

He served there for seven months, returning to the states in September, according to his family. They said he served in Fallujah.

A family member who asked not to be identified said Raya’s parents never allowed guns in their home, so it was unlikely that Raya had owned the assault rifle used in the shooting for very long.

It was not a Marine-issued weapon, authorities said.

Raya used an SKS assault rifle, and it had been illegally modified with a detachable magazine, said Woodman.

He said investigators were trying to determine where Raya had obtained the weapon and could not rule out that he had an accomplice.

“We’re talking to people he knew, we’re talking about anything that turns up,” Woodman said. “But so far we don’t know much.”

In an e-mail, a man identifying himself as a Marine and longtime friend of Raya’s, said Raya could not have hidden the rifle at Camp Pendleton, because military police often do random checks of barracks.

The e-mailer, who asked not to be identified, said Raya served as a motor vehicle operator. And he seemed to change during his time in the Marines.

“Before he joined, he was very motivated,” the e-mail stated. “The first time I saw him back (from Iraq), he wasn’t so motivated. He cracked negative jokes about people who were serious. … He was negative towards the Marines. He still seemed like the same guy, he just had a hard time.”

Bee staff writer Joel Hood can be reached at 238-4574 or jhood@modbee.com.

AT A GLANCE

FLAGS LOWERED: Gov. Schwarzenegger on Tuesday ordered flags at the Capitol to be flown at half-staff in honor of Howard Stevenson, the Ceres police sergeant shot and killed in the line of duty Sunday night. “Law enforcement officers risk their lives on a daily basis to ensure our safety and wellbeing,” the governor said in a prepared statement. “The bravery in the line of duty that officer Stevenson exhibited will not be forgotten, and his courage, commitment and ultimate sacrifice to make California a safer place are deeply appreciated. Maria and I would like to send our condolences to the family and loved ones of officer Stevenson during this time of mourning.”

BLOOD DRIVE: The Ceres Police Department is urging people to donate blood in the name of officer Sam Ryno, who was wounded in the same gunfight that claimed Sg. Howard Stevenson’s life. An account is set up at Delta Blood Bank and people can donate at branches in Ceres, Modesto and Turlock. For more information, including hours, call 538-5990.

TRIBUTES: The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors opened its Tuesday morning meeting with a moment of silence for slain Ceres police Sgt. Howard Stevenson and wounded officer Sam Ryno. Tuesday night, just before adjourning the Modesto City Council meeting, Mayor Jim Ridenour asked everyone in the chamber to stand for a moment of silence in Stevenson’s memory. The Turlock City Council called for a moment of silence for Stevenson. Also, police Chaplain Richard Roberts, in giving the invocation that started the Turlock meeting, prayed for Stevenson and Ryno and the Ceres community.

Republican Congress Does an About-Face on Supporting VeteransAmericans seem eager to “support our troops” these days. It says so on the bumper of every other car on the road, anyway.

But how our government treats the troops when they come home – as veterans – is no cause for bumper sticker pride.

Some older veterans wait more than a year for an appointment to see a doctor via the Byzantine bureaucracy of the Department of Veteran Affairs.

If you are not a recent returning soldier, you can spend a whole day seeking help and wind up so frustrated, so desperately unsupported, that you end up calling a local newspaper columnist. I get a call like that about twice a week.

“They’re yanking us around,” said one, John Welge of Lindenhurst, a 57-year-old disabled Vietnam veteran who happened to call yesterday. “There’s so many cuts, everybody’s doing the job of three people. I’ve been on the phone all day trying to get someone to help me with a simple medical form …”

A trillion-dollar deficit, caused mainly by huge tax cuts during the past four years, has led the VA to impose many economies, small and large. Seven VA hospitals are scheduled to be closed, for instance. The VA is also reviewing the possibility of reneging on a landmark 1996 reform that more than tripled the number of veterans eligible for health-care coverage – from 2 million to 7 million.

In this strange atmosphere of VA belt-tightening when more is being asked of a current generation of troops, veterans advocates saw Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.), chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, as one of their few reliable friends.

He ushered through increases in college tuition aid for veterans, advocated for improved disability benefits, for marginally better death benefits for survivors of soldiers killed in action, for the first program for helping homeless vets. Smith frequently locked horns with his own party leadership in efforts to expand health care services.

After taking the committee chairmanship in 2001, he openly criticized Republican leaders for what he considered inadequate VA budget proposals.

“He is a very principle-based guy,” said Steve Robertson, director of legislative affairs for the American Legion. “He’s very passionate. In areas where he thought he was right, he was willing to take a stand. Veterans admired that about him.”

If you don’t follow the intricacies of Washington politics, then you might want to know how the House Republican leadership felt about Rep. Smith’s willingness to take a stand for our veterans.

They didn’t like it much.

Last week, despite protests from seven major veterans organizations including the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, Smith was removed as chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee. He had been due to step down in 2006.

He was replaced by Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), a Persian Gulf veteran who is considered more loyal to House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay. According to an analysis by the Asbury Park Press, Buyer voted with his leadership 99 percent of the time while Smith’s record of conformity was only 77 percent.

Richard Fuller, legislative director for Paralyzed Veterans of America, told the Washington weekly newspaper The Hill that the motive for Smith’s removal was clearly to “make an example” of him because of his willingness to buck the leadership. Hastert and DeLay have declined to discuss it.

In a statement after his ouster, Smith said: “I honestly believe that conformity is not loyalty, that constructive disagreement is the highest sense of loyalty.”

To the House Republican leaders, though, supporting our troops apparently begins and ends with supporting our House leaders.

Article #1 of 2: Police Officer, U.S. Marine, Killed in Shootout

CERES, CALIFORNIA — It started as a seemingly simple and somewhat routine call Sunday night: a man was acting strangely at a liquor store.

Moments later, a burst of gunfire echoed through the normally quiet neighborhood. One Ceres police officer lay dying, another was critically wounded, and law enforcement was storming the scene by land and air.

Helicopters hovered above as police ordered people to go inside, lock their doors and turn off the lights.

Three hours later, another gun battle erupted, this one ending in the death of a 19-year-old Marine from Modesto,suspected of shooting the two officers.

Altogether, police and neighbors said Monday, dozens of bullets flew, shattering windows and piercing vehicles as residents hunkered down in terror.

“Brap-brap-brap-brap-brap,” said Anthony John Phillips, a 15-year-old boy who lives a block away, trying to describe the rapid gunfire. “I was scared. It was crazy.”

In the end:

Article #2 of 2: Funeral today for Iraq War Soldier

A funeral Mass is scheduled today for Army Private First Class. Oscar Sanchez of Modesto, the 19-year-old man who was killed in action Dec. 29 in Iraq. The Mass will be at 9 a.m. at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church, with burial at St. Stanislaus Catholic Cemetery. According to the Army, PFC Sanchez opened fire on a suicide bomber, and his action saved other soldiers. He was the only soldier who died.