Springs Military Life | Colorado Springs Gazette

UCCS gets grant to treat brain injuries, PTSD

Life: Health Published: Wed, Jun 19, 2013

Veterans who are ineligible to receive assistance from the Veterans Administration due to the status of their discharge will soon be able to receive free or reduced cost mental health care from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs thanks to a $2 million grant, the university announced...

Other than Honorable A Gazette special report

A Gazette investigation shows an increasing number of soldiers, including wounded combat veterans, are being kicked out of the service for misconduct, often with no benefits, as the Army downsizes after a decade of war.

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A war veteran, a flag and a mission

Wind whipped a banner with the pictures of thousands of fallen U.S. troops, folding it on top of itself and covering some of their faces. Joe Patrick Jr. instinctively dropped to his knee and smoothed the banner, which laid unfurled in front of the Fallen Fire Fighter Memorial in Memorial Park on Wednesday. "This is to provide people with the...
Commissaries will close more days because of sequestration

It's just a tiny piece of $1 trillion in budget cuts the Pentagon expects to make over the next decade. Furloughs - unpaid days off for government employees that are being used to balance the Pentagon's books - will close the commissaries on Mondays from July 1 through Sept. 30. For the Air Force Academy's commissary, closed on Mondays, the...
Lamborn: Army mum on whether Fort Carson will grow or shrink

With a decision to significantly cut or marginally increase troop strength at Fort Carson expected by the end of the month, the Army is keeping quiet about its plans, Colorado Springs Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn said Wednesday. The Army announced this year that it was studying changes at Fort Carson that could increase its ranks by...
Soldier calls shooting at Garden of the Gods 'a big mistake'

Between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. Monday morning residents on the southern edge of Garden of the Gods woke to sporadic, rapid gunfire. Some hit the floor. Others peered out windows at the constant muzzle flashes as they pleaded for the police to arrive. Colorado Springs police swept in with body armor and assault rifles and emerged from the brush...
Four Air Force Academy cadets headed to Poland to study Holocaust

Four Air Force Academy cadets will ponder some of the worst decisions made in military history this summer during a two-week trip to Auschwitz to study the Holocaust. The cadets, Blake Abrecht, Jessica Adams, Nathan Orrill, and Regan Rogers, were selected by the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation for a fellowship aimed at teaching future...
Air Force Academy cadet hits the sky to rescue dogs

Cadet Adam McMurray has a soft spot for furry friends. So when McMurray, a licensed pilot and senior at the Air Force Academy, learned that a mother dog and her six pups were scheduled to be euthanized in Texas, he knew he had to do something. Even if it cost him nearly $1,500 of his own money. "I immediately started making phone calls to...
Pikes Peak region awards: June 2

Marine Lance Cpl. Evan Bernabei Marine Lance Cpl. Evan Bernabei has been meritoriously promoted to the rank of corporal, according to his grandfather, Roy Bowers. Evan is the son of Greg and Bea Bernabei of Colorado Springs and a 2010 graduate of Pine Creek High School. Evan is an avionics technician stationed at Naval Air Station Fort Worth...
Calendar of events starting June 2, 2013

CALENDAR Tuesday Reassignment briefings - For soldiers on assignment instructions for overseas and stateside locations, 7 a.m. sign-in, briefings start at 7:30 a.m., 1 p.m. sign-in, briefings start at 1:30 p.m. for stateside briefings, Freedom Performing Arts Center, Building 1129, Fort Carson. Enlisted soldiers are required to bring...
Pikes Peak region roundup: June 2

Museums offering free admission More than 2,000 museums across the nation, including two in Colorado Springs, will offer free admission to troops and their families this summer as part of the Blue Star Museums Initiative. Locally, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., and the World Figure Skating Museum & Hall of Fame, 20...
Some GI skills translate to everyday life

Twenty-four military spouses silently sat in a dim room. Their eyes were closed. If not for the whirring of fans and the recording of a male voice, one could have heard a pin drop. "Totally relax," the voice commanded in a slow, even tone. "Let all the tension flow out as you exhale and relax." The spouses were practicing tactical breathing,...
POWs reunite after 40 years

YORBA LINDA, Calif. - U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Doug Burns was on a night reconnaissance mission searching for enemy trucks when he was shot down by anti-aircraft fire and taken prisoner during the Vietnam War. Burns broke three vertebrae when he ejected into a flooded rice paddy and spent the first weeks of his captivity strapped to a concrete...
House panel rejects pay cap, most Tricare increases

Even as the defense budget drops like a rock and the Joint Chiefs urge Congress to spread some of the fiscal pain across personnel accounts, the House armed services subcommittee on military personnel has said "No." On Wednesday, the panel unanimously rejected the Obama administration's call to cap the 2014 military pay raise at 1 percent...
Fort Carson commander says post could lose 8,000 soldiers - or gain 3,000

Looming Pentagon cuts that would cut the Army's ranks by 80,000 could mean 8,000 fewer soldiers at Fort Carson in the future, the post's commander said Thursday. Or, it could grow by about 3,000 soldiers, Maj. Gen. Paul LeCamera said. A group of military officers, politicians and government agency leaders gathered Thursday in Colorado...
A day of memories and anticipation for graduating Air Force Academy cadets

The name sounded so familiar when read Wednesday at the Air Force Academy. "Ambard." With that call, Timothy Ambard bid adieu to the place where his father was buried. Timothy Ambard's name was the seventh called to receive a diploma - he was among the distinguished graduates because of his academic and military achievements. In...
Air Force Academy graduates salute the past, look to the future

Beneath a rousing flyover of decades-old warbirds, 1,024 newly commissioned second lieutenants graduated Wednesday from the Air Force Academy - each receiving a diploma and a call to "serve with integrity." Cadets puffed on stogies and clutched each other as thousands of friends and families cheered at Falcon Stadium under skies that...