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Georgia soldier charged with killing pregnant wife

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A Georgia soldier accused of plotting attacks as the leader of an anti-government militia group has been charged by the Army with the killing of his pregnant wife in 2011.

Fort Stewart officials said Wednesday they have charged 21-year-old Pvt. Isaac Aguigui with murder in the death of his wife, Army Sgt. Deirdre Aguigui. The Army investigated the July 2011 death for nearly two years but has released no details.

Aguigui, of Cashmere, Wash., has been jailed since December 2011. He is one of four Fort Stewart soldiers charged by civilian authorities in the slaying of former soldier Michael Roark and his girlfriend.

Prosecutors say Aguigui used insurance money from his wife’s death to buy weapons for a militia group that plotted attacks from Georgia to Washington state.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

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APNewsBreak: Ga. soldier charged with killing wife

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A Georgia soldier accused of plotting attacks as the leader of an anti-government militia group has been charged by the Army with the killing of his pregnant wife in 2011.

Fort Stewart officials said Wednesday they have charged 21-year-old Pvt. Isaac Aguigui (Ah-GEE-gee) with murder in the death of his wife, Army Sgt. Deirdre Aguigui. The Army investigated the July 2011 death for nearly two years but has released no details.

Aguigui, of Cashmere, Wash., has been jailed since December 2011. He is one of four Fort Stewart soldiers charged by civilian authorities in the slaying of former soldier Michael Roark and his girlfriend.

Prosecutors say Aguigui used insurance money from his wife’s death to buy weapons for a militia group that plotted attacks from Georgia to Washington state.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

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Military's same-sex couples seek overturn of DOMA

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The death certificate read “single,” although the fallen soldier was not.

When it came time to inform the next of kin, casualty officers did not go to the widow’s door in North Carolina, nor did she receive the flag that draped the casket of her beloved, a 29-year-old National Guard member killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan.

Because federal law defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman, the military did not recognize the marriage of Army Sgt. Donna R. Johnson and Tracy Dice Johnson at all, rendering Johnson ineligible for the most basic survivor benefits, from return of the wedding ring recovered from the body to a monthly indemnity payment of $1,215.

“You cannot imagine the pain, to actually be shut out,” said Dice Johnson, an Army staff sergeant who survived five bomb explosions during a 15-month tour in Iraq. “Not only is one of their soldiers being disrespected. Two of them are being disrespected.”

As the Supreme Court prepares to consider the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, gay marriage advocates are focusing particular attention on the way they say the law dishonors gay service members and their spouses, who are denied survivor payments, plots in veterans’ cemeteries, base housing and a host of other benefits that have been available to opposite-sex military couples for generations.

If the high court strikes down the DOMA, the ruling could bring sweeping changes to the way the military treats widows and widowers such as Dice Johnson, the first person to lose a same-sex spouse to war since “don’t ask, don’t tell” was lifted in 2011.

Although they can now serve openly, gay and lesbian service members “are anything but equal, and it’s the DOMA that is really what’s standing in the way,” said Allyson Robinson, a West Point graduate who serves as executive director of OutServe-SLDN, an advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender service members and veterans that filed a brief urging the court to strike down the law.

On the other side stands the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, an association of faith groups that screen chaplains for military service. It has asked justices to uphold the DOMA on the grounds that pastors and service members from religions that oppose homosexuality would find their voices silenced and their opportunities for advancement limited.

“The military has no tolerance for …read more
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Tennessee soldier shot, killed in Colorado home

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Authorities say a soldier from Tennessee has been shot and killed at his home in Colorado, and a juvenile member of his family is a suspect.

Army Sgt. James Fleming died Saturday in Widefield, a town near Fort Carson, where he was stationed.

The juvenile’s name hasn’t been released. El Paso County sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Kramer declined Wednesday to describe the juvenile’s relationship to Fleming. Kramer says the juvenile isn’t in custody but the public isn’t at risk.

The 36-year-old Fleming was a mechanic from Cordova, Tenn. The 11-year veteran had deployed to Iraq three times and Kuwait once.

He’s the second Fort Carson soldier fatally shot at home in two months. Staff Sgt. David Dunlap and his wife, Whitney Butler, were killed when they surprised a burglar Jan. 14.

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National cemetery denies burial of Army dog that served beside Michigan soldier

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One Detroit mother is fighting to ensure that the dutiful dog who served alongside her son is buried in a national cemetery.

Mina is a male black lab who served nine tours of duty in Afghanistan and was promoted to sergeant before retiring from the Army, Fox 2 News reported. The dog served three tours with Michigan native Army Sgt. Corey McCourt.

“The dog sits in front of the bomb and my son, who does this, goes in and he disarms the bomb after the dog finds it,” McCourt’s mother, June Etlinger, told Fox 2 News.

But after developing a serious lung ailment at age 13, Mina was euthanized. And with her son still serving in the Army, Etlinger was tasked with finding a suitable final resting place for the canine hero. She’d like it to be Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly, Mich.

“My father is buried there and my grandmother and grandfather are buried there. It’s a beautiful cemetery and it’s an honorable cemetery, and I just feel that Mina deserves that as well,” Etlinger said.

But the cemetery official denied Etlinger’s request. She said an official told her a canine burial is not allowed.

“I don’t think he’s ever been asked that question before, so he was kind of like no, we don’t do that here,” Etlinger said told the TV station.

For now, Mina’s remains are secured at an animal hospital in Michigan, but Etlinger vows to continue to fight for a proper military burial for Mina.

“He may be a dog, but he’s a soldier and he deserves it,” she said.

Click for more from MyFoxDetroit.com.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

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Float driver won't face charges in train crash

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A grand jury on Wednesday declined to indict the driver of a float involved in a train collision that killed four U.S. military veterans in a West Texas parade.

Dale Andrew Hayden, the driver of the truck pulling the float, will not face charges stemming from the Nov. 15 accident that killed four veterans who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sixteen other people were injured.

Midland County prosecutor Eric Kalenak had presented evidence to the 12-person grand jury.

The veterans were riding on a flatbed truck that was hit by a Union Pacific train traveling at 62 mph. The truck was the second float in a parade organized to honor wounded veterans and their wives.

The accident remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

According to the NTSB, the railroad crossing warning system was activated 20 seconds before the accident, and the guardrail began to come down seven seconds after that. Investigators say the float began crossing the train tracks even though warning bells were sounding and the crossing lights were flashing.

Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific Corp. announced in December that it was adjusting the timing of the crossing signal where the collision occurred.

The veterans had been invited to Midland, a transportation and commerce hub in the West Texas oilfields, for a three-day weekend of hunting and shopping in appreciation of their service. A local charity, Show of Support, organized the trip, parade and other festivities.

Show of Support officials did not get a parade permit from the city.

In the days after the crash, Hayden was placed under a physician’s care and got counseling, his attorney, Hal Brockett has said.

Hayden, who has a military career spanning more than three decades, works as a truck driver for Smith Industries, an oilfield services company. The company placed Hayden on medical leave.

Killed were Marine Chief Warrant Officer 3 Gary Stouffer, 37; Army Sgt. Maj. Lawrence Boivin, 47; Army Sgt. Joshua Michael, 34; and Army Sgt. Maj. William Lubbers, 43.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News