'American Sniper' suspect told authorities he shot Kyle, friend after they 'wouldn't talk'

STEPHENVILLE (Tribune News Service) — Eddie Ray Routh felt snubbed.

He’d climbed into the truck with acclaimed former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and a buddy for an afternoon at a shooting range, and nobody had a thing to say. So he shot them.

That’s the explanation he gave for the slayings while sitting in the Erath County Jail awaiting trial on capital murder charges, according to a former sheriff’s deputy who overheard the confession.

“I heard Mr. Routh say, ‘I shot them because they wouldn’t talk to me,’” former Deputy Gene Cole, now a Belton police officer, told jurors late Friday during Routh’s capital murder trial. “‘I was just riding in the back seat of the truck and nobody would talk to me. They were just taking me to the range, so I shot them. I feel bad about it, but they wouldn’t talk to me. I’m sure they’ve forgiven me.’”

The exchange on June 22, 2013, is the first glimpse from prosecutors at a possible motive for the killings.

Kyle, 38, whose bestselling book American Sniper was recently made into a blockbuster movie, and his close friend Chad Littlefield, 35, were fatally wounded at a shooting range that Kyle had designed at the upscale Rough Creek Lodge and Resort near Glen Rose, southwest of Fort Worth.

Routh, 27, of Lancaster, a former Marine corporal who specialized in small-arms repairs, has indicated he will seek an insanity defense, which means he suffered from severe mental illness and did not know what he had done was wrong.

If convicted of capital murder, he automatically would face life in prison without parole. District Attorney Alan Nash has indicated he will not seek the death penalty.

If found not guilty by reason of insanity, Routh could face up to life in a state mental hospital.

Mental illnesses

No one denies that Routh pulled the trigger. He confessed to investigators after being arrested shortly after the Feb. 2, 2013, shootings.

But defense attorneys J. Warren St. John and Tim Moore of Fort Worth and R. Shay Isham of Stephenville have indicated that Routh had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, psychosis and personality disorders.

He told his sister that he believed people were “sucking his soul” and that he had to kill Kyle and Littlefield before they killed him. A police body camera captured his rambling negotiations a few hours later in which he talked about voodoo, anarchy, the Apocalypse and his fears that he is going insane.

Even Kyle noted problems during the drive from Lancaster to the shooting range, Routh’s defense attorneys said..

“This guy is straight-up nuts,” Kyle told Littlefield in a text message.

But Routh’s uncle James Watson said his behavior seemed normal on the morning of the shootings. Watson, 45, of Alvarado said he drove to see his nephew after Routh’s girlfriend called to say he was upset.

‘Dead man’s truck’

Watson said they smoked marijuana and sat on the porch and talked until someone showed up at the door. Routh then left without saying a word, he said, so Watson locked up the house and left.

He said Routh showed up at his house later that day, driving a big black truck.

“He was showing me a pistol that he had — a 9 mm handgun,” Watson said. “He said, ‘Check out my truck.’ He later said, ‘I’m driving a dead man’s truck.’”

Watson said he thought Routh was talking about himself — he had suffered from depression and other problems since leaving the Marines in 2010 after a four-year stint that included service in Iraq and Haiti.

“I noticed that he’d lost his desire for life,” Watson said.

Weapons’ use

The gun Routh was displaying turned out to be Kyle’s Navy handgun. The gun had been used to shoot Littlefield seven times, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety forensic expert. Routh then apparently reloaded the magazine with 15 rounds and took the weapon with him when he fled the scene in Kyle’s black Ford pickup.

Kyle was shot with a different weapon, a .45-caliber weapon. His body appeared to be about 20 feet from Littlefield’s just off the shooting range platform.

Testimony is expected to resume Monday before state District Judge Jason Cashon, despite the national Presidents Day holiday. Prosecutors are expected to rest their case early next week.

Staff writer Naomi Martin contributed to this report.

AT A GLANCE: The day in court

What happened: Prosecutors offered the first suggestion of a possible motive for the shootings of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and his friend, Chad Littlefield. A former Erath County deputy sheriff testified he heard accused killer Eddie Ray Routh say he shot the men because they wouldn’t talk to him.

What stood out: Routh’s uncle testified that Routh had suffered from depression and seemed to have lost “his desire for life” after leaving the Marines in 2010.

What’s next: Testimony will resume Monday, and Routh’s videotaped confession is expected to be shown. Prosecutors are expected to rest their case next week.

———

©2015 The Dallas Morning News

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UN draft urges action on Yemen's crisis

21 minutes ago

By CARA ANNA

The Associated Press

Published: February 15, 2015

UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Security Council members are considering the first resolution on Yemen since a rebel takeover spun the Arab world's poorest country into the danger of collapse.

A draft resolution obtained by The Associated Press demands that Shiite Houthi rebels "immediately and unconditionally" withdraw forces from government institutions, release U.S.-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his Cabinet from house arrest, and engage "in good faith" in U.N.-led peace talks.

But the draft falls short of what the Arab countries of the Gulf Coordination Council would like.

Alarmed and worried that Shiite powerhouse Iran is backing the rebels, the largely Sunni Muslim states of the council have demanded a resolution that condemns the Houthis and acts under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, meaning it can be militarily enforced.

The draft emerged just two days after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council that Yemen was "collapsing before our eyes." Jordan and Britain quickly began working on a draft resolution.

At least nine countries, including the United States, have closed their embassies in Yemen in the past few days amid fears that the Houthis will grab more territory and that the world's most dangerous branch of al-Qaida, based in Yemen, will be emboldened by the chaos. The Houthis and militant Sunnis of the al-Qaida branch are bitter rivals.

The U.N.-led talks continue but have made little ground, with envoy Jamal Benomar telling the Security Council on Thursday that Yemen, which neighbors Saudi Arabia and Oman, is at a crossroads between "civil war and disintegration."

The draft resolution "strongly deplores" the Houthis' actions to take over government institutions after grabbing control of the capital, Sanaa, in September. The rebels dissolved the parliament, and Hadi resigned last month.

The draft demands that all parties in Yemen "cease all armed hostilities against the people and the legitimate authorities of Yemen and relinquish the arms seized from Yemen's military and security institutions." It also calls on U.N. member states to "refrain from external interference which seeks to foment conflict and instability."

Islamic militants seize radio, TV stations in central Libya

By ESAM MOHAMED

The Associated Press

Published: February 14, 2015

TRIPOLI, Libya — Gunmen from an al-Qaida inspired militia have taken over radio and television stations in the central Libyan city of Sirte, a security official said.

He said the seizure of the buildings happened on Thursday after militants from Ansar al-Sharia had warned the station to stop broadcasting music.

The group, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, is accused of being involved in a deadly 2012 attack on a U.S. mission and annex in Benghazi. Its branch in the city of Derna has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.

On Saturday, a bomb hit a pipeline leading to the country's largest oil field, al-Sarir, disrupting the flow of oil to ships at a coastal terminal, oil officials said.

The official said residents of Sirte went about their business after the seizure and traffic flowed normally. A resident said that the radio station had begun playing religious songs and lessons.

All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Widespread militia violence has plunged Libya into chaos less than four years after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

The country's post-Gadhafi transition has collapsed, with two rival governments and parliaments — each backed by different militias — ruling in the country's eastern and western regions. The elected parliament was never allowed to properly convene due to a takeover of the capital, Tripoli, by Islamic and tribal militias. That parliament has been forced to function in the eastern city of Tobruk, while the pre-election parliament has declared itself legitimate and remains in Tripoli.

Patch holds off strong challenges to repeat

WIESBADEN, Germany – It’s said there is no playing field as even as a wrestling mat. That was certainly the case on Saturday, the second and final day of the 2015 DODDS-Europe wrestling championships.

Nine schools were represented among Saturday’s 28 weight-class finalists. Four schools placed three or more wrestlers in one of the14 title bouts, and five programs came away with individual championships.

Here’s a rundown of the newly crowned European champions:

106 pounds – Lakenheath sophomore Brandon Lovett became the day’s first European champion with a tense 4-2 decision over Vilseck’s Blaise Markley.

Lovett finished fifth as a freshman last season, and came into this winter prepared to contend. He carried that confidence all the way through Saturday’s finale.

“I was less nervous, more experienced,” Lovett said. “I was just ready.”

That feeling held even as Markley stayed in striking distance throughout the full-length match.

“I lost control a little bit,” Lovett said. “But I was still in the zone.”

113 – All the evidence suggested a loss for Vilseck’s Aydan Huezo.

Even Huezo didn’t dispute that he was an underdog. After following the exploits of undefeated AFNORTH senior Anthony Doerfer all winter, the Falcon junior knew what he was up against. A preliminary-round loss to Doerfer earlier Saturday reinforced it. But that match, a 9-7 decision that was Doerfer’s first non-pinfall win of the season, also proved that Huezo belonged at the highest level despite his five regular-season losses.

“It definitely boosted me up a bit,” Huezo said.

In fact, it carried all the way to an upset 9-8 decision for the championship. Huezo, a transfer from Seoul American, ramped up his offense in the rematch to turn the tables on the favored Doerfer.

Afterwards, he leapt into the pack of Falcon teammates cheering him on from just off the mat.

“Best feeling ever,” Huezo said.

120 – Christopher Matzke of Patch won his second consecutive European title by pinning his opponent for the second time of the day. His title-clinching pin of Ramstein’s Stan Cruz came in 94 seconds.

Matzke won six preliminary matches in the unconventional seven-man round-robin field, including a Saturday morning pin of Cruz, to reach the final. Once there, he added the 120-pound crown to the 113-pound title he won last winter.

The win kicked off a string of titles for the reigning champions.

126 – Matthew Bolduc became Patch’s second straight repeat champion with a 59-second pinfall defeat of Kaiserslautern’s Evan Heryford.

Bolduc successfully made the leap from 106 pounds, the class he won at last year’s European tournament, to a division three levels higher.

132 – Another Patch title was assured in this title match, the only teammate-versus-teammate bout of the day. Johnathan Brabazon took the title over Isaiah Phillips with a pin just under two minutes into the match.

138 – The stalwart Panthers threatened to hijack the otherwise balanced tournament as Patch junior Robert Call gave the school its fourth championship in a row. Call, last year’s 132-pound champion, took a 12-2 major decision over Lakenheath’s Zackary Adamson for his second title in as many seasons.

145 – Due to sheer numbers and the resulting depth, the middle-weight divisions are considered among the most competitive in DODDS-Europe. Saturday’s matches confirmed that notion.

After a winter of evenly-matched action in the 145-pound ranks, Lakenheath’s Emilio Medina and Kaiserslautern’s Lawrence Abbott extended the season by an extra period in Saturday’s title bout. The two ended regulation deadlocked; a takedown at 27 seconds in the one-minute extra period clinched the win for Medina.

152 – A nearly identical match followed the Medina-Abbott showdown. This time Vicenza’s Robert Maldonado and Wiesbaden’s Matthew Hall fought to a regulation standstill; Hall’s takedown at the 37-second mark gave the decision to the hometown wrestler.

160 – Lakenheath continued its banner Saturday at the expense of a new rival hoping for its own breakthrough.

Matthew Okoniewski recorded a 5-0 decision over Vicenza’s Marshall Perfetti for the Lancers’ third European title of the day. Lakenheath didn’t have any wrestlers compete in the European finals last season.

Okoniewski was voted the tournament’s outstanding wrestler by DODDS-Europe coaches.

Vicenza, competing at the Division I team level for the first time after last fall’s DODDS-Europe realignment, took its second straight title-match loss.

170 – Bradly Lemon gave Kaiserslautern a taste of European gold with his second consecutive title, recording a 57-second pin over Vicenza’s Seth Shields. Lemon won at 182 pounds in 2014.

Vicenza’s otherwise impressive tournament, meanwhile, ended in frustration as all three of its title-match contenders settled for runner-up status.

182 – The Raider party continued as Aaron Gauff gritted out a grueling pinfall victory over Ramstein’s Dillon Thompson. The match nearly went the distance before Gauff secured the pin at five minutes and 53 seconds.

Gauff was among the most dominant wrestlers in any class at the tournament. He earned pins in all five of his matches over the two days, with the first four all coming in the first two minutes before Thompson extended him in the title bout.

195 – Few people have a perspective on the extremes of DODDS-Europe athletics like that of Patch junior Eli Spencer.

In August, Spencer transferred to Patch from Incirlik, one of the organization’s smallest schools. And on Saturday, he added to his new school’s abundant trophy case with a sudden 46-second pin of Alconbury’s Chris Dufresne. Spencer’s win was the fifth and final Panther title of the day.

Spencer finished second to Lemon at 182 pounds last year. The move to Patch gave him the boost he needed.

“I think it improved me immensely,” Spencer said. “Patch is the most amazing wrestling program in all of DODDS.”

The outcome dashed the hopes of Alconbury, another of DODDS-Europe’s smallest programs. Chris’s brother Nick Dufresne lost in the 182-pound semifinal round. Still, the brothers’ efforts led the Dragons to the Division III team championship.

220 – The homestanding Warriors fielded a smaller group of European qualifiers compared to last year’s Division I runner-up squad. But the two they placed in Saturday’s final round did their part.

Wiesbaden senior Hunter Lunasin won his second straight championship at 220 pounds with a forceful one-minute, 29-second pin of Lakenheath’s Colten Menges, who made the leap from last year’s third-place finish to the final match.

Lunasin joined 152-pound champion Hill in a 2-0 title-bout performance for the host school.

285 – Casey Fairchild of Lakenheath and Brian Mogavero of Patch were on a collision course all tournament, if not all season. Turns out they collided twice Saturday.

Fairchild and Mogavero both went 4-0 in Friday’s early rounds before meeting Saturday morning to wrap up pool wrestling. Fairchild won that match 3-1.

Then he won the big one - in all senses of that word. The Lancer heavyweight muscled his way to a hard-won five-minute, 21-second pin.

Fairchild’s win capped a strong day for Lakenheath, which earned four weight-class trophies. Lakenheath finished second to Patch in the team race, with 217 points to the Panthers’ 252.

“The kids have worked real hard this year. They put in the time,” said Lancer coach Darryl Brock, who will now take this season’s memories into retirement. “I couldn’t be happier for them.”

broome.gregory@stripes.com

Twitter: @broomestripes

Denmark on edge as 2nd shooting within hours rocks Copenhagen

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A gunman opened fire on a Copenhagen cultural center, killing one man and wounding three police officers in what authorities called a terror attack against a free speech event featuring an artist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad.

After searching for the gunman for hours, police reported another shooting near a synagogue in downtown Copenhagen after midnight Sunday. One person was shot in the head and two police officers were shot in the arms and legs, police said, adding it wasn't clear whether the two incidents were linked. The gunman fled on foot.

Sebastian Zepeda, a 19-year-old visitor from London, said he didn't want to leave his hotel room after hearing of the first shooting and was text messaging with his mother when the second shooting happened on the street below.

"I was on my bed and I heard gunshots. And my heart raced," Zepeda said. "All of a sudden the road was packed with police."

The earlier shooting came a month after extremists killed 12 people at a satirical newspaper in Paris that had sparked Muslim outrage with its depictions of Muhammad.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the first shooting, which took place shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday. Danish police said the gunman used an automatic weapon to shoot through the windows of the Krudttoenden cultural center, which TV footage showed were riddled with bullet holes. The gunman then fled in a carjacked Volkswagen Polo that was found later a few kilometers (miles) away, police said.

They said the victim was a man about 40 who was inside the cultural center. He has not yet been identified. Two of the wounded officers belonged to the Danish security service PET, which said the circumstances surrounding the shooting "indicate that we are talking about a terror attack."

Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist who has faced numerous death threats for caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad, was one of the main speakers at Saturday's panel discussion, titled "Art, blasphemy and freedom of expression." He was whisked away by his bodyguards unharmed as the shooting began.

Vilks, 68, later told The Associated Press he believed he was the intended target of the shooting.

"What other motive could there be? It's possible it was inspired by Charlie Hebdo," he said, referring to the Jan. 7 attack by Islamic extremists on the French newspaper.

"At first there was panic. People crawled down under tables," Vilks said. "My bodyguards quickly pulled me away."

The cultural center had a lecture hall as well as a cafe. Vilks said no one in the hall was wounded.

"We were well isolated in there. It would have been much worse if this happened during the break, when people walk out," Vilks said.

He said he deplored the death and the injuries but was unfazed as to what it meant for his own safety.

"I'm not shaken at all by this incident. Not the least," he told AP by phone.

Police initially said there were two gunmen but later said they believed there was only one shooter. They described him as 25 to 30 years old with an athletic build and carrying a black automatic weapon. They released a blurred photograph of the suspect wearing dark clothes and a scarf covering part of his face.

"I saw a masked man running past," said Helle Merete Brix, one of the event's organizers. "I clearly consider this as an attack on Lars Vilks."

Niels Ivar Larsen, one of the speakers at the event, told the TV2 channel he heard someone shouting and firing automatic weapons. "Police returned the fire and I hid behind the bar. I felt surreal, like in a movie," Larsen said.

Visiting the scene of the first shooting, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt called it a "political attack and therefore an act of terror."

Police spokesman Joergen Skov said it was possible the gunman had planned the "same scenario" as in the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

François Zimeray, the French ambassador to Denmark who was at the event to speak about the Charlie Hebdo attack, tweeted that he was "still alive." Police said he was not wounded.

French President Francois Hollande called the Copenhagen shooting "deplorable" and said Thorning-Schmidt would have the "full solidarity of France in this trial." French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was arriving Sunday in Copenhagen.

Leaders across Europe condemned the violence and expressed support for Denmark. Sweden's security service said it was sharing information with its Danish counterpart, while U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said U.S. officials were ready to help with the investigation and have been in touch with their Danish counterparts.

Vilks has faced several attempted attacks and death threats after he depicted the Prophet Muhammad as a dog in 2007. A Pennsylvania woman last year got a 10-year prison term for a plot to kill Vilks. In 2010, two brothers tried to burn down his house in southern Sweden and were imprisoned for attempted arson.

Vilks told the AP after the Paris terror attacks that, due to increased security concerns, even fewer organizations were inviting him to give lectures.

The depiction of the prophet is deemed insulting to many followers of Islam. According to mainstream Islamic tradition, any physical depiction of the Prophet Muhammad — even a respectful one — is considered blasphemous.

While many Muslims have expressed disgust at the deadly assault on the Charlie Hebdo employees, many were also deeply offended by its cartoons lampooning Muhammad.

___

Ritter reported from Stockholm. Thomas Adamson in Paris contributed to this story.

DODDS European wrestling - Day 2

Round 5 (pool action)

106 -- Parker (Kais) pin Bartlett (Patch) 1:53, Garcia (Ram) pin Williams (Nap) 3:11, Kingery (Ram) by forfeit over Gerber (Wies), Lovett (Lake) def. Markley (Vil) 7-3.

113 -- Doerfer (AFN) def. Huezo (Vil) 9-7, Ulep (SHAPE) def. Kling (Wies) 6-0, Hoopes (Ram) maj. dec. Wade (Nap) 16-5, Dixon (Patch) pin Clamage (Vil) 1:00.

120 -- Matzke (Patch) pin Cruz (Ram) 3:43, Lopez (Lake) pin Kochan (Avi) 3:59, Cruz (Ram) pin Lopez (Lake) 3:10, Holliday (Baum) pin Sculley (Bru) 2:57, Matzke (Patch) pin Glasgow (Vil) 0:57, Sculley (Bru) pin Kochan (Avi) 1:14.

126 -- Nantz (Hoh) def. Crouch (BFA) 3-2, Badillo (Vic) def. Dean (Ram) 7-5, Heryford (Kais) pin Ford (Ram) 0:44, Bolduc (Patch) pin Ragay (Vil) 0:43.

132 -- Manibusan (Lake) by default Booth (Lake), Phillips (Patch) pin Folks (Vic) 1:07, Beaumont (Bit) pin Hoffman (Nap) 2:35, Brabazon (Patch) pin Colbert (Hoh) 3:18, Bolanos (Kais) maj. dec. Finlay (Vil) 10-1, Wilson (Baum) by forfeit over Tiffany (Ram).

138 -- Hrushka (Kais) pin McElwee (Avi) 3:48, Call (Patch) def. Adamson (Lake) 6-3, Fisher (Nap) pin Ferguson-LuGrain (Patch) 2:42, Castaneda (Vil) maj. dec. Lovato (Ram) 12-2.

145 -- Medina (Lake) def. Smith (Wies) 11-4, Weatherspoon (Vil) def. Abbott (Kais) 8-6, Vanderlaan (Patch) def. Sizemore (Nap) 6-4, Phillips (Patch) by forfeit over Gilbert (AOSR); Rivera-Nales (Ram) def. LaClair (Bru) 3-1, Wegner (BFA) pin York (Vic) 3:37.

152 -- Velasquez (Patch) pin Hebert (Kais) 2:36, Maldonado (Vic) pin Rios (Ram) 1:57, Hall (Wies) pin Lopez (Lake) 5:31, Dudley (Hoh) pin Jordan (Rota) 3:49.

160 -- Wilby (Ram) by forfeit over Freed (Wies), Dennison (Vic) pin Steinbrunner (Lake) 1:48, Wentland (Patch) pin Heryford (Kais) 1:59, Jefferson (Hoh) pin Shuey (Vil) 4:57, Okoniewski (Lake) pin Perfetti (Vic) 5:20, Figueroa (Nap) def. Chason (Ram) 18-11.

170 -- Shields (Vic) pin Van Horn (Lake) 1:55, Brown (Vil) def. Blake (Bit) 4-2, Heiges (Wies) pin Hood (Nap) 3:12, Lemon (Kais) def. Roderick-Wood (LAK) 5-4.

182 -- Thompson (Ram) pin Johnston (Vic) 0:56, Gauff (Kais) pin Jurgens (AOSR) 1:47, Dufresne (Alc) def. Makee (Patch) 11-5, Deraney (Vil) by default Wiles (Kais).

195 -- Dufresne (Alc) pin Cairns (Nap) 1:02, Spencer (Patch) pin Dean (Ram) 1:13, Griffin (Kais) pin Coffman (Hoh) 0:50, Buzbee (Wies) pin Davis (Hoh) 0:50.

220 -- Gillette (Kais) pin Bunte (Nap) 2:24, Tiedke (Wies) pin Hartley (Alc) 0:51, Gibson (Hoh) pin Artese (Ram) 1:27, Menges (Lake) def. Lunasin (Wies) 9-4.

285 -- Fairchild (Lake) def. Mogavero (Patch) 3-1, Gerena (Ram) def. Hemphill (Wies) 9-2, Weddle (Kais) pin Rivera (Avi) 3:29.

Semifinals

106 -- Lovett (Lake) pin Garcia (Ram) 3:27; Markley (Vil) pin Kingery (Ram) 5:02.

113 -- Huezo (Vil) pin Hoopes (Ram) 2:57; Doerfer (AFN) pin Dixon (Patch) 2:42.

126 -- Heryford (Kais) def. Ragay (Vil) 5-4; Bolduc (Patch) pin Nantz (Hoh) 3:04.

132 -- Brabazon (Patch) pin Beaumont (Bit) 5:01; Phillips (Patch) def. Manibusan (Lake) 8-5.

138 -- Call (Patch) pin Ferguson-LuGrain (Patch) 4:32; Adamson (Lake) maj. dec. Fisher (Nap) 13-2.

145 -- Medina (Lake) def. Rivera-Nales (Ram) 4-2; Abbott (Kais) maj. dec. Sizemore (Nap) 10-1.

152 -- Maldonado (Vic) pin Dudley (Hoh) 1:51; Hall (Wies) maj. dec. Rios (Ram) 10-1.

160 -- Perfetti (Vic) pin Figueroa (Nap) 1:18; Okoniewski (Lake) maj. dec. Wilby (Ram) 9-0.

170 -- Lemon (Kais) pin Heiges (Wies) 1:53; Shields (Vic) def. Brown (Vil) 5-3.

182 -- Thompson (Ram) def. Dufresne (Alc) 3-2; Gauff (Kais) pin Deraney (Vil) 0:43.

195 -- Spencer (Patch) pin Cairns (Nap) 0:45; Dufresne (Alc) pin Dean (Ram) 2:54.

220 -- Lunasin (Wies) pin Gibson (Hoh) 1:47; Menges (Lake) pin Tiedke (Wies) 1:13.

Fifth place

106 -- Wood (Alc) def. Williams (Nap) 5-4

113 -- Ulep (SHAPE) pin Nacionales (Bit) 4:52

120 -- Glasgow (Vil) pin Sculley (Bru) 3:02

126 -- Crouch (BFA) def. Badillo (Vic) 6-5

132 -- Bolanos (Kais) pin Hoffman (Nap) 5:26

138 -- Castaneda (Vil) def. Hrushka (Kais) 11-9

145 -- Phillips (Patch) pin Wegner (BFA) 3:45

152 -- Gamboa (Avi) pin Jordan (Rota) 2:33

160 -- Wentland (Patch) pin Chason (Ram) 3:33

170 -- Roderick-Wood (Lake) pin Blake (Bit) 2:53

182 -- Makee (Patch) maj. dec. Jurgens (AOSR) 17-8

195 -- Griffin (Kais) pin Buzbee (Wies) 1:30

220 -- Artese (Ram) pin Gillette (Kais) 1:36

285 -- Rivera (Avi) pin Hemphill (Wies) 0:49

Third place

106 -- Kingery (Ram) pin Garcia (Ram) 3:33

113 -- Dixon (Patch) by forfeit over Hoopes (Ram)

120 -- Holliday (Baum) pin Lopez (Lake) 1:10

126 -- Nantz (Hoh) pin Ragay (Vil) 5:21

132 -- Beaumont (Bit) pin Manibusan (Lake) 1:49

138 -- Ferguson-LuGrain (Patch) pin Fisher (Nap) 2:12

145 -- Rivera-Nales (Ram) pin Sizemore (Nap) 1:57

152 -- Dudley (Hoh) pin Rios (Ram) 3:51

160 -- Figueroa (Nap) def. Wilby (Ram) 7-2

170 -- Brown (Vil) def. Heiges (Wies) 9-6

182 -- Dufresne (Alc) pin Deraney (Vil) 0:52

195 -- Dean (Ram) pin Cairns (Nap) 1:58

220 -- Gibson (Hoh) pin Tiedke (Wies) 1:14

285 -- Gerena (Ram) pin Weddle (Kais) 0:49

Looking for love: Survey shows how couples meet

No two Valentine's stories are alike. Still, there's inspiration to be found in the way couples meet and realize they'll be weaving their lives together.

Here's a gallery of portraits and the how-we-met stories that couples will celebrate Saturday.

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Thomas Baytarian and his wife, Lisa, stand for a photo in front of their home in Port St. Lucie, Fla., on Feb. 9, 2015. Thomas was at sea - literally - when he found love.

His sister talked a lot about her cool new friend Lisa. Thomas, a Marine corporal, looked up Lisa on Facebook to say hello, just before deploying for nine months aboard the USS Kearsarge. While the ship crossed the globe, helping flood victims in Pakistan and civilians in the Libyan civil war, Thomas and Lisa messaged and talked.

Working two jobs cleaning houses and delivering pizzas back in Florida, Lisa gave up sleep to reach him in her only free time. Thomas had to wait his turn for a ship computer or phone.

"It was nonstop, trying to find time to communicate with each other," Thomas says. They started talking marriage, even though they'd seen each other only in photos. Lisa nervously awaited his return alongside jubilant Marine families at Cherry Point, N.C.: "I felt like, is this going to be real when we meet? Is everything going to change?"

Nothing changed, except they could finally kiss. "It was just like we'd been in each other's presence for that nine months," Thomas says. They married a month later, June 2011. He's out of the service now. Thomas and Lisa Baytarian, 25 and 27, are raising their 2-year-old son in Port St. Lucie.

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Michelle and Robert Philippi laugh as they stand together for a photograph in Boise, Idaho, on Feb. 10, 2015. Michelle's mother was in community college, and she kept complaining about this big guy in her bowling class who would wave his arms and shout in triumph every time he rolled a strike. Every week it was the same: "Oh God, I had that class with that guy again. He's so annoying."

Then one day Mom came home and said, "That guy in that class, he's so obnoxious, he's so loud - and here's his phone number. I think you'd be perfect together." So Michelle called "that guy" - Robert - and he invited her to go fishing.

Michelle had absolutely no interest in fishing but agreed to meet him on the nearby Antioch pier, in the San Francisco Bay area. Robert turned out to be a nice guy, who wasn't loud outside of bowling alleys. They talked and laughed on the pier through the night, until 8 a.m.

At one point, the song "Kayleigh" played on Robert's radio, and they agreed if they ever got married and had a daughter, that's what they would name her. "I think we kind of left knowing that this was something different," Michelle says. Michelle and Robert Philippi, now 44 and 46, settled in Boise, Idaho, where they're raising a 12-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter, Kayleigh.

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Amirah Naim in Philadelphia sits next to an image of her fiance, Theodore Lawson III, who lives in Atlanta on Feb. 9, 2015.

Amirah and Teddy were born four days apart in August 1970. They went to the same high school in Sharon Hill, Pa., and double-dated to the prom; he took one of her best friends. But Amirah and Teddy mostly hung out in different circles.

After graduation in '88, he moved south, got married, had three daughters, got divorced. She left for college, built a career in Philadelphia, stayed single. A few years ago they became Facebook friends, the way old classmates do.

Last July, Teddy cooked up a good-looking platter of blue crabs and posted a photo. Seafood-lover Amirah jokingly responded: "I'm coming over, save me a plate." A couple of hours later he teased her: "Your food's getting cold." That started them chatting online. Soon they were calling every morning and falling asleep on the phone at night.

Technically they're still separated by 700 miles, but Teddy doesn't speak of it that way: "That day I cooked those crabs and she commented, since then we've been inseparable," he says. She's preparing to join him in Atlanta. Their wedding is set for April on a beach in South Carolina's Sea Islands.

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Ray Matteis, left, and his wife, Penny, walk along the beach at Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, Calif., on Feb. 6, 2015.

Penny was single, 52, and devoting crazy hours to a Silicon Valley startup when she decided to channel her workaholic ways toward finding a man. She launched her project on Easter 2006: Each week she would peruse Match.com and arrange a dinner date in San Francisco.

The result? Lots of Friday night duds.

By Thanksgiving she felt defeated. "I thought I'll give it one more go," she says. That Friday's date was Ray: divorced father of two and fellow tech worker, living near her in tiny Aptos. She liked "the little twinkle in his eyes." They moved in together, and last year Ray's mother persuaded him to make it official.

The wedding was timed to a Santa Cruz County tradition: Valentine's Day courthouse ceremonies are streamed live online, meaning Ray's mother could watch from her nursing home in Tacoma, Washington. She died five months later.

"I'm grateful that she gave him a little nudge," Penny says, "because she was the only other woman on this Earth he would listen to." Ray and Penny Matteis, both 60, are marking their first anniversary.

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Charlie Breslin, background right, sits with his wife, Nancy, and their children, from left, Kate, 6, Alan, 9, and Lila, 6, in their home in Glen Ridge, N.J., on Feb. 7, 2015.

Go to the AIDS Walk, the rabbis at Charlie Breslin's Manhattan synagogue urged. It's a good deed and "Who knows? You might meet someone." Charlie found the notion of chasing love while raising money for a heartbreaking illness "terribly tacky" - until a friend introduced Nancy at the starting line.

"I was instantaneously smitten," he says. Nancy remembers noticing Charlie "had a nice smile, but I didn't think that much of it." She was there to honor the memory of a beloved mentor, not to mingle. Nancy purposefully plunged into the throng, leaving Charlie to search for her along the 6-mile route. Finally he glimpsed her ahead in the distance. A strategic shortcut through Central Park allowed Charlie to catch up and "accidentally" bump into her again.

His idea of breaking for cookies was a hit; that led to coffee after the walk. Fourteen years later, Charlie and Nancy Breslin, both 46, are raising their three children in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. They mark special occasions with donations to the Gay Men's Health Crisis, the beneficiary of AIDS Walk New York.

---

Jane Watts, left, stands with her partner, June Riner, at one of the battery and light bulb stores they co-own in Decatur, Ga., on Feb. 9, 2015.

It all started on Stone Mountain. Nearing age 40, feeling new aches taking hold of her joints, Jane began serious training for her final multisport "adventure race." Needing a training partner to keep her motivated, she recruited longtime friend June. That meant trekking together 1.2 miles up Stone Mountain near Atlanta early every morning.

"Doing that day after day, you start talking about life, and what's good and what's bad and what's great about it," Jane says.

Says June, "You get to know each other on a different level."

Jane had been hoping to expand her business, and one mountain morning it dawned on her that June would be the perfect business partner. As she urged June to invest her life savings the conversations intensified, and grew more personal. "Before the papers were signed, we were a romance," Jane says.

They've been a couple for a decade now and own four Batteries Plus Bulbs franchises together in Atlanta. Jane Watts, 52, and June Riner, 50, say they'll wed someday, if Georgia's ban on same-sex marriages is lifted.

---

Matt and Annie Waters hold each other in their home in Alexandria, Va., on Feb. 9, 2015.

Matt protested when his roommate wanted to check out the Saturday night pickup scene at a nearby bar: "We were both Christians, and I said 'This is a waste of time. None of these girls will be in church tomorrow.'" But he was drawn to Annie, a 21-year-old visiting Washington, D.C., for an internship, who sat demurely sipping lemonade.

Matt tried an intentionally goofy line: "How about you and me play a round of putt-putt golf?" She found him nerdy but harmless, and gave her number. The next morning, Annie woke early to travel alone by subway and taxi to a giant Presbyterian church in Maryland, on a quest for a lively congregation that also suited her deep faith.

She was astonished and a bit embarrassed to bump into one of the guys from the suburban Virginia bar - Matt's roommate.

Matt soon appeared and tried a new line suitable to the setting: "Are you a Calvinist?" he asked Annie, who was, in fact, a senior at the Michigan college named after John Calvin.

"He said, 'Baby, it's all about predestination!'" she recalls. "He was really cocky. The confidence was appealing." Matt and Annie Waters, now 47 and 38, live in Alexandria, Va., with their five children. They say it was meant to be.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Top wrestlers ramping it up to '150 percent'

WIESBADEN, Germany – AFNORTH wrestler Anthony Doerfer spent part of his Thursday laid up in a hospital bed.

A day later, it was his opponents who were laid out.

Doerfer recovered from a short-lived but intense bout with illness in time for a string of short-lived but intense bouts in the 113-pound European championship bracket Friday, the first day of the 2015 DODDS-Europe wrestling championship meet.

The Lion senior continued his undefeated winter with three pinfall victories, ranging from a 30-second squash to a three-and-a-half minute duel with SHAPE’s Carlos Ulep.

“I just caught a little bug or something,” Doerfer said. “But I’m on top of my game now.”

That’s been the case all winter. Doerfer has been dominant in his DODDS-Europe debut after moving to Netherlands from El Paso, Texas.

He’ll enter Saturday’s finale with a chance to complete a wire-to-wire streak of pinfall wins.

In fact, that’s the only kind of outcome he’s satisfied with.

“All I want is pinfalls,” Doerfer said. “It’s more of a victory if you pin them.”

Doerfer wasn’t the only lower-division star to assert himself on the European stage Friday.

Alconbury’s brother tandem of Chris Dufresne and Nick Dufresne had no trouble with the larger pool of competition, cruising undefeated through the early rounds of pool wrestling.

Chris recorded three wins at 195 pounds, while Nick won two of two at 182; all five came by pinfall in the first two minutes.

Bitburg 132-pounder Brandon Beaumont enjoyed similar success. The Baron contender pinned all four of the preliminary opponents he faced Friday.

While small-school contenders shined on the big stage, DODDS-Europe’s Division I juggernauts were far from overshadowed.

Homestanding Wiesbaden senior Hunter Lunasin turned in an efficient opening-day performance. The only wrestler defending a title in the same class he won it in 2014, Lunasin needed just 136 seconds to knock off the pair of 220-pound opponents he was tasked with Friday.

Lakenheath fared well after spending the regular season dominating the northern region. Lancer heavyweight Casey Fairchild emerged as a strong contender at 285 pounds, recording pins over the four members of the five-man class he encountered. Fairchild’s run sets up a compelling Saturday-morning pool matchup with Patch’s Brian Mogavero, who also went 4-0 on day one.

Speaking of Patch, the defending Division I team champion Panthers piled up victories all day, including three abrupt pins from Robert Call. The Panther star is the reigning 132-pound European champion now feasting on the 138-pound ranks.

As Friday’s results prove, Call has made the adjustment seamlessly.

“I’ve gone up a weight class every year, so it’s pretty normal,” he said. “I do different things every year, but that’s based on my training, not really weight.”

Call has a similarly even-keeled approach to the European tournament.

The high-profile event is a departure from the standard Saturday meets of the regular season. Now in his third European tournament, however, Call is unfazed.

“It’s definitely a lot less pressure,” the junior said. “I’m not as nervous.”

Nerves will be tested even further Saturday as the two-day meet concludes with the final preliminary matches, semifinals and placing matches. The 14 championship bouts are set to begin at 3:30 p.m. CET.

With a winter’s worth of hard work at stake, wrestlers are prepared for their toughest challenges to date on Saturday.

“Everybody’s going 150 percent now,” Doerfer said. “It’s not just a match. It’s a championship.”

broome.gregory@stripes.com

Twitter: @broomestripes

Authorities foil suspects' plot to shoot people at mall, commit suicide

56 minutes ago

By ROB GILLIES

The Associated Press

Published: February 14, 2015

TORONTO — A senior police official said Friday that police foiled a plot by two suspects who were planning to go to a mall and kill as many people as they could before committing suicide on Valentine's Day in Halifax.

The official told The Associated Press the suspects were on a chat stream and were apparently obsessed with death and had many photos of mass killings. Police and other officials said it was not related to Islamic terrorism.

The official said one of the two suspects, a 23-year-old American woman from Geneva, Ill., was arrested at Halifax's airport and confessed to the plot. The official said she prewrote a number of pronouncements to be tweeted after her death.

Police said the suspects had access to firearms but did not elaborate.

The official said the 19-year-old male suspect shot himself to death after police were tipped off about the plot and surrounded his home. Police saw two people leave the house who they determined were his parents and pulled them over on a traffic check. They then called the suspect. As the man told police he didn't have any guns and was on his way out of the house, he shot himself, the official said.

The official spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Police earlier said two other Nova Scotia men, ages 20 and 17, were also involved, although investigators are still trying to determine what their roles were. The police official said the 17-year-old was wanted for threatening to shoot up a high school and had an outstanding warrant.

"Had they been able to carry out their intentions, the possibility for a large loss of life was definitely there," Nova Scotia Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commanding Officer Brian Brennan said earlier Friday.

"We believe we have apprehended all known individuals in this matter and have eliminated the threat. We are not seeking any further suspects at this time in relation to this investigation."

Canadian Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney applauded the work of police in Canada and Geneva, Ill., as well as border officials in a statement. The Geneva police department said in a statement they were contacted by Canadian police and had no contact with the American woman before her arrest.

Canadian Justice Minister Peter MacKay has scheduled a news conference for Saturday morning.

NATO expansion after Cold War at heart of crisis in Ukraine

WASHINGTON — The Cold War didn't end. It just took on a 24-year pause. The East-West showdown over Ukraine makes that clear.

As the non-Russian republics broke free in the Soviet collapse and Eastern European Soviet satellite countries snapped the chains of Moscow's dominion, common wisdom held the Cold War was over. The victors: The United States and its European allies — bound together in the NATO alliance to block further Soviet expansion in Europe after World War II.

Since the Soviet collapse — as Moscow had feared — that alliance has spread eastward, expanding along a line from Estonia in the north to Romania and Bulgaria in the south. The Kremlin claims it had Western assurances that would not happen. Now, Moscow's only buffers to a complete NATO encirclement on its western border are Finland, Belarus and Ukraine.

The Kremlin would not have to be paranoid to look at that map with concern. And Russia reacted dramatically early last year. U.S.-Russian relations have fallen back into the dangerous nuclear and political standoff of the Cold War years before the Soviet collapse.

The turmoil began when Ukraine's corrupt, Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych backed out of an agreement with the European Union for closer trade and political ties and instead accepted Russian guarantees of billions of dollars in financial aid. That led to prolonged pro-Western demonstrations in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. The upheaval caused Yanukovych to flee to Moscow a year ago.

When a new, pro-Western government took power in Ukraine, Russia reacted by seizing the Crimean Peninsula and making it again a part of Russia. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had transferred the strategic region from Russian federation control to the Ukraine republic in 1954. Crimea remained base to Russia's Black Sea fleet. Ethnic Russians are a majority of the population.

Also, Russian-speaking separatists in eastern Ukraine — along the Russian border — began agitating, then fighting to break free of Kiev's control, variously demanding autonomy, independence or to become a part of Russia. As separatist fighters — the West claims they have been given Russian heavy arms and are backed by Russian forces — pushed deeper into Ukraine, a September peace conference drew up plans for a cease-fire and eventual steps toward a political resolution.

The cease-fire never held, and the fighting between Ukrainian forces and the separatist grew more intense. The separatists accumulated considerable ground in the fighting, which the United Nations reports has claimed 5,300 lives.

Now there's a new peace plan. Hammered out in all-night negotiations this week, it calls for a cease-fire to take effect Sunday. But since the deal was announced, fighting has only increased, as Ukrainian forces battle to hold a major rail hub in Debaltseve. The town controls transport between the rebel-held regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Those regions are home to major heavy industrial complexes, many of which produce weapons for Russia's military.

As part of the deal that calls for an end to fighting, both sides are to draw back heavy weapons from the conflict line. Kiev is to write a new constitution that would reflect the autonomy demands of the separatists. Ukraine would retake control of its border with Russia. Moscow views the accord as a guarantee Ukraine will not join NATO.

The agreement was heralded as a new chance for peace by French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who arranged the deal at negotiations that also involved Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Rebel leaders also signed on. U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, which has led a tough sanctions drive against Moscow over its actions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, has taken a wait-and-see attitude.

"The true test of today's accord will be in its full and unambiguous implementation, including the durable end of hostilities and the restoration of Ukrainian control over its border with Russia," the White House said in a statement.

American officials are skeptical the deal will hold. Secretary of State John Kerry put it bluntly: "Actions will be what matter now. We will judge the commitment of Russia and the separatists by their actions, not their words."

In the meantime, the administration has put off a decision on sending lethal weapons to Ukraine and imposing additional sanctions on Russia. Putin, who so far has proven impervious to Western sanctions and crashing oil prices that threaten the entire Russian economy — is a step closer to his goal of making certain there won't be yet another NATO member along the country's western frontier.

US judge dismisses 12-year-old dugong suit over US base on Okinawa

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit that sought to stop construction of a U.S. military base in Japan that it said would harm the Okinawa dugong, an endangered marine mammal related to the manatee.

U.S. District Court Judge Edward Chen said he didn't have the authority to stop construction of the base off Okinawa.

"Put simply, this court lacks the power or necessary competence to enjoin or otherwise interfere with the construction of a U.S. military facility overseas that is being built consistent with American treaty obligations and in cooperation with the Japanese government," he said in his decision.

The suit was brought by Japanese residents and environmental groups and named former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel as a defendant.

The Center for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiffs, plans to appeal the decision, said Peter Galvin, director of programs for the center.

"We believe it's an erroneous decision that will be overturned by a higher court," he said.

The fight, which has been going on for years, is over a decision to relocate Marine Corps Air Station Futenma — part of a broader arrangement between the U.S. and Japan that would lead to a reduced military presence on Okinawa.

Environmentalists say the construction of two aircraft runways on landfill in a bay as part of the construction plan will destroy critical feeding grounds and habitat for the Okinawa dugong.

The animal is associated with traditional creation myths in Japan and listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, with its numbers estimated to be less than 50 about a decade ago.

The plaintiffs originally filed the lawsuit in 2003, claiming the Defense Department failed to consider the base construction's potential harm to the dugong.

A federal judge agreed, and in 2008 ordered defense officials to conduct a review, which was completed in 2014, according to Chen's ruling.

The review found that the base would have no adverse effect on the Okinawa dugong. The plaintiffs said the finding was "arbitrary and capricious" and asked Chen to set it aside.

In his ruling on Friday, the judge said ordering that the finding be set aside would have no practical effect since "the American and Japanese governments have made a final and (apparently) irreversible decision to construct the challenged military base."

USAREUR’s top enlisted moving on, replacement unknown

WIESBADEN, Germany — U.S. Army Europe Command Sgt. Maj. David Davenport will move on to a new assignment in March after serving three years and three generals in the post.

Davenport, who has spent most of his 31-year Army career in Europe, has been tapped to take the top enlisted spot at the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Eustis, Va., a place, he said, he’s never been.

The Army has yet to name his successor.

Though not as high-profile as the position of USAREUR commander, Davenport has become well known in the Europe military community over the past three years, both from his numerous appearances on the American Forces Network and his frequent trips to visit U.S. and allied soldiers around the continent.

Those who see him on TV know he’s a fan of Miami Dolphins football and Baltimore Orioles baseball.

Out of the spotlight, though, he was working to increase the effectiveness of the Army’s much-reduced European force by making sure young sergeants got training they needed for further promotion and that soldiers were ready to deploy.

The command, which numbered more than 200,000 troops during the Cold War, now has around 30,000. About two years ago, roughly 13 percent of USAREUR’s soldiers weren’t available for deployment for various reasons, such as medical or administrative problems.

In the last year and a half, the percentage of soldiers not available for deployment has dropped to 9 percent, Davenport said.

“There’s no glory in that. I mean, there’s no headlines,” USAREUR chief Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, Davenport’s boss, said Thursday at a going-away ceremony for the 49-year-old cavalryman. “But it’s about helping make a system work and it’s about helping soldiers get the care they’re supposed to get” and help units navigate the military’s “thick” bureaucracy.

“That’s part of his legacy,” Hodges said.

Davenport, who came to USAREUR from a stint as command sergeant major for Fort Bliss and 1st Armored Division, said the hardest part of his job in Europe was getting around to see the soldiers, who are dispersed among seven major garrisons in three countries and deployed across the Continent from the Baltics to Turkey.

At Bliss, he said, “it was very easy to jump in a car to drive and visit 4th Brigade. But you just can’t do that in this footprint.”

He’d like to have spent more time out, he said, to quell the fears among soldiers, civilians and family members about Army decision-making, such as plans to cut the force’s end strength — a frequent source of concern.

While he would have been happy to retire from USAREUR, he’s looking forward to TRADOC, a command with a very long reach and which oversees everything from basic training to leader development.

“That affects the whole force,” Devenport said, “so I’m very excited about that.”

millham.matthew@stripes.com

Twitter: @mattmillham

Officials: Islamic State militants killed after penetrating perimeter of Al Asad Air Base

WASHINGTON — Islamic State militants on Friday penetrated the perimeter of an Iraqi base where about 400 U.S. troops are stationed, according to military officials.

Eight insurgents attacked an Iraqi army facility on the Al Asad Air Base in Anbar province, according to a statement by Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve.

“The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) supported by Coalition surveillance assets defeated the attack, killing all eight attackers. The ISF have since re-secured their facility,” CJTF-OIR said in the statement.

Australian army Maj. Sarah Hawke, a task force spokeswoman, said the militants penetrated the perimeter of the base, but coalition forces were not directly involved in the counterattack. Their contribution was limited to aerial surveillance to assist the ISF.

“Coalition forces were several kilometers from the attack and at no stage where they under direct threat from this action,” CJTF-OIR said in the statement.

Hawke said the militants are believed to have been on a suicide mission, but she did not know what types of weapons they used.

This isn’t the first time that Al Asad has come under insurgent attack. For months, the Islamic State has been regularly launching small-scale rocket and mortar attacks on the facility.

The base “has been subjected to ineffective indirect fires … on average several times per week for several months now,” Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters Thursday before the attack that breached the perimeter occurred. “Al Asad is a large and sprawling base. Thus far, none of the indirect fire attacks that have been launched against it have had any impact at all — no American casualties, no American equipment damaged.”

There are about 400 American troops at Al Asad training and advising ISF forces, who are battling the Islamic State in Anbar and across Iraq. President Barack Obama has ruled out sending American ground forces into combat in Iraq, and the administration’s strategy for defeating the Islamic State relies heavily on local forces to retake captured territory.

The U.S. military plans to train nine ISF brigades and three peshmerga brigades. Iraqi forces are expected to launch major offensives to retake key terrain, perhaps as early as this spring.

There are about 2,600 total U.S. troops in Iraq.

harper.jon@stripes.com

Twitter: @JHarperStripes

Officials: Islamic State militants killed after penetrating perimeter of Al Asad Air Base

WASHINGTON — Islamic State militants on Friday penetrated the perimeter of an Iraqi base where about 400 U.S. troops are stationed, according to military officials.

Eight insurgents attacked an Iraqi army facility on the Al Asad Air Base in Anbar province, according to a statement by Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve.

“The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) supported by Coalition surveillance assets defeated the attack, killing all eight attackers. The ISF have since re-secured their facility,” CJTF-OIR said in the statement.

Australian army Maj. Sarah Hawke, a task force spokeswoman, said the militants penetrated the perimeter of the base, but coalition forces were not directly involved in the counterattack. Their contribution was limited to aerial surveillance to assist the ISF.

“Coalition forces were several kilometers from the attack and at no stage where they under direct threat from this action,” CJTF-OIR said in the statement.

Hawke said the militants are believed to have been on a suicide mission, but she did not know what types of weapons they used.

This isn’t the first time that Al Asad has come under insurgent attack. For months, the Islamic State has been regularly launching small-scale rocket and mortar attacks on the facility.

The base “has been subjected to ineffective indirect fires … on average several times per week for several months now,” Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters Thursday before the attack that breached the perimeter occurred. “Al Asad is a large and sprawling base. Thus far, none of the indirect fire attacks that have been launched against it have had any impact at all — no American casualties, no American equipment damaged.”

There are about 400 American troops at Al Asad training and advising ISF forces, who are battling the Islamic State in Anbar and across Iraq. President Barack Obama has ruled out sending American ground forces into combat in Iraq, and the administration’s strategy for defeating the Islamic State relies heavily on local forces to retake captured territory.

The U.S. military plans to train nine ISF brigades and three peshmerga brigades. Iraqi forces are expected to launch major offensives to retake key terrain, perhaps as early as this spring.

There are about 2,600 total U.S. troops in Iraq.

harper.jon@stripes.com

Twitter: @JHarperStripes

Fort Carson brigade headed to Kuwait for possible showdown with the Islamic State

As Congress mulls America's war with the Islamic State terror group, more than 4,000 Fort Carson soldiers prepared Thursday to leave for Kuwait, where they will take over as America's largest ground force in the troubled region.

The 3rd Brigade Combat Team bid farewell to the post in a ceremony and will head off soon to serve as U.S. Central Command's Reserve force in the Middle East - the first soldiers into battle if a major combat force is used to battle Islamic State fighters.

The unit is Fort Carson's heaviest force, armed with tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Many of its soldiers are veterans of one or more of the brigade's four combat tours in Iraq.

"We're no strangers to deployment," the brigade's commander, Col. Greg Sierra told a crowd gathered for the ceremony.

Sierra's soldiers have trained for more than a year for the Kuwait mission. They practiced skills that atrophied over more than a decade of counterinsurgency fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, re-learning the armored combat skills last used in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"We are absolutely ready for this mission," Sierra said.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday asked Congress to authorize long-term combat operations against the Islamic state, but reinforced his pledge to not use the Army's big combat units in the fight.

"Local forces, rather than U.S. military forces, should be deployed to conduct such operations," Obama said in a letter to lawmakers. "The authorization I propose would provide the flexibility to conduct ground combat operations in other, more limited circumstances, such as rescue operations involving U.S. or coalition personnel or the use of special operations forces to take military action against (Islamic State) leadership."

The Army has kept a brigade in Kuwait since the end of the Iraq war in 2011. Those soldiers, including two units from Fort Carson, have worked to train local troops from throughout the Middle East. In its most recent deployment to Kuwait, Fort Carson's 2nd Brigade Combat team conducted training missions with allies including Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, which have joined the coalition against Islamic State fighters.

After the ceremony, Sierra said the brigade's training regimen readied soldiers for a range of missions from humanitarian relief to nonstop combat.

"We are prepared for any contingency," he said.

Sierra's soldiers are getting a long weekend with their families before they head out. The colonel gave the families reassurance that if his brigade tangles with Islamic State fighters, the outcome won't be in doubt.

"In the end, if we do get into fights, we win decisively," he said.

Contact Tom Roeder: 636-0240

Twitter: @xroederx

———

©2015 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)

Visit The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.) at www.gazette.com

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Boycott of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ movie urged

BUFFALO, N.Y. — “Fifty Shades of Grey” hasn’t even opened in theaters yet but already it is getting a big thumbs-down from religious and other groups who say it is degrading to women and endorses sexual violence.

One social media campaign is encouraging would-be movie-goers to donate their ticket and popcorn money to women’s shelters, while Roman Catholic bishops are using it as what-not-to-do guide to marriage.

Even as screenings sell out in advance, critics, including the American Family Association and National Center on Sexual Exploitation, are pushing for boycotts, saying they were compelled to speak out because of the attention the movie, with its scenes of bondage and sadomasochism, has attracted.

A spokesman for AAFES Europe said there had been one formal complaint about its decision to show the movie, but that “the Exchange does not censor movies.”

“We are not going to censor this movie, Lt. Col. Al Hing said. Due to the adult nature of the movie, it’s being shown at later times at European theaters, Hing said. Most Exchange theaters in Europe will premiere the movie either Friday or Saturday.

A Madison, Wis., group planned to picket outside a Thursday premier.

“This is not a healthy thing to mainstream,” American Family Association President Tim Wildmon told The Associated Press by phone. “We’d like to see theater chains refuse to take the movie.”

That is unlikely to happen. The ticket-buying site Fandango has said pre-sales have propelled the movie, which stars Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, into the company’s all-time top five for R-rated selections, and fans of the book are giddily building the big-screen version into Valentine’s weekend plans.

The movie opens in theaters Friday. It’s based on a best-selling book by E L James about a college student and her torrid affair with a 27-year-old billionaire with a penchant for bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism.

“What’s unique about it is the overall message is that they’re trying to glamorize and romanticize violence against women,” said Amanda Smith, spokeswoman for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, which launched a website fiftyshadesisabuse.com.

“It’s such a lie,” Smith said, “telling women that they should want to endure this kind of physical abuse and telling them that women want it, and also pushing the lie that if women are obedient and subservient enough, then they can fix a violent and controlling man.”

James, who wrote the erotic trilogy that launched the film, has heard the backlash and says the critics have it all wrong.

“Why have these books taken off if they are about abuse?” said James, who discussed the film with the AP over the weekend. “Domestic violence, rape, are unacceptable. They are not entertaining in any way. Let me be absolutely clear: Everything that happens in this book is safe and consensual. … What do I need to do to convince people?”

‘ This is not a healthy thing to mainstream. We’d like to see theater chains refuse to take the movie.'

Pacific Scoreboard: Feb. 13, 2015

High school

38^th Far East High School Wrestling Tournament

Thursday at Osan Air Base, South Korea

Individual freestyle tournament

Division I

St. Mary’s 139½, Nile C. Kinnick 135, Seoul American 112½, Kadena 101½, Kubasaki 85½, American School In Japan 46, Christian Academy Japan 32½.

Division II

Robert D. Edgren 53, Zama 44, Osan and E.J. King 40, Yokota 20, Daegu 17, Matthew C. Perry 14.

101 pounds — Liam Knowles, Edgren, pin. Niko Manning, Kadena; Scott Fugate, Kubasaki, pin. Eshan Singhi, St. Mary’s.

Fifth place — Singhi tech. Manning, 13-2.

Third place — Fugate pin. Knowles.

Championship — Lucas Wirth, Kinnick, pin. Ryan Frederick, SAHS, 1:51.

108 — Lachlan Fahy, ASIJ, pin. John Meneses, SAHS; Tasi Duenas, Kadena, tech. Michael Yoshino, CAJ.

Fifth place — Meneses dec. Yoshino, 14-11.

Third place — Duenas pin. Fahy.

Championship — Chang Young Lee, St. Mary’s, tech. Matt Abrenilla, Kinnick, 11-0, 1:52.

115 — Zach Kline, ASIJ, pin. Matthew Palabrica, Kubasaki; Kaivan Taylor, King, pin. Adam Trujillo, Kadena.

Fifth place — Trujillo pin. Palabrica.

Third place — Kline dec. Taylor, 8-4.

Championship — Lucas Shiraki, St. Mary’s, dec. Chon Dareing, Kinnick, 5-0.

122 — Anthony Macaluso, Kubasaki, tech. Takumi Kawashima, Zama, 14-4; Kade Sundvall, Edgren, pin. David Tsuneki, CAJ.

Fifth place — Tsuneki tech. Kawashima, 14-4.

Third place — Sundvall dec. Macaluso, 12-11.

Championship — Gabe Duplon, Kadena, dec. Ryo Osawa, St. Mary’s, 6-0.

129 — Jianni Labato, Kinnick, pin. Joshua Figueredo, Kubasaki; Ahmeer Dinkins, King, pin. Yeol Ryoo, CAJ.

Fifth place — Figuredo pin. Ryoo.

Third place — Labato dec. Dinkins, 10-2.

Championship — Alberto Orsara, St. Mary’s, pin. Danny Berdine, SAHS, 2:03.

135 — Gavin Duenas, Kubasaki, pin. Sky Phillips, Edgren; George Calbert, Kinnick, dec. Jordan Goodman, Yokota, 11-10.

Fifth place — Goodman pin. Phillips.

Third place — Calbert tech. Duenas, 11-0.

Championship — Ryan Vasconcellos, St. Mary’s, tech. Hunter Lane, SAHS, 11-1, 3:23.

141 — Jackson Edmonds, Edgren, tech. Brent Smith, Osan, 16-4; David Cole, SAHS, dec. Darius Swenson, Kinnick, 3-2.

Fifth place — Swenson tech. Smith, 10-0.

Third place — Cole dec. Edmonds, 13-6.

Championship — Jason Bland, Kadena, tech. Itsuki Shibahara, St. Mary’s, 10-0, 3:31.

148 — JinHwi Park, CAJ, pin. Joel Ramos, SAHS; Brenden Becker, Osan, dec. Thomas McGrath, King, 12-7.

Fifth place — Ramos pin. McGrath.

Third place — Becker pin. Park.

Championship — Kazuho Kawashima, St. Mary’s, dec. Brady Yoder, Kinnick, 10-4.

158 — Jarek Bartel, SAHS, dec. JP Krussick, Edgren, 6-2; Hunter Corwin, Kadena, tech. Zach Brown, Perry, 10-0.

Fifth place — Brown dec. Krussick, 10-8.

Third place — Bartel dec. Corwin, 9-0.

Championship — Riku Osawa, St. Mary’s, dec. Morgan Baek, Daegu, 11-10.

168 — Sam Preston, Zama, pin. Kade Leonard, Osan; Mitchell Krcelic, St. Mary’s, dec. Daniel Hayewood, SAHS, 5-2.

Fifth place — Leonard pin. Hayewood.

Third place — Preston pin. Krcelic.

Championship — Dre Paylor, Kinnick, tech. Ricky Salinas, Kadena, 15-4, 4:23.

180 — Patrick Sledge, Edgren, pin. Dwayne Lyon, Kinnick; Dominic Santanelli, Kadena, tech. Sam Michelsen, Yokota, 15-4.

Fifth place — Lyon tech. Michelsen, 10-0.

Third place — Santanelli dec. Sledge, 8-0.

Championship — Jonathan Miller, ASIJ, dec. Brandon Rothe, SAHS, 7-6.

215 — Nicolas Alvarez, Kinnick, pin. Eugene Williamson, Osan; Alek Gomez, Kadena, tech. Trayland Rose, Zama, 10-0.

Fifth place — Williamson tech. Rose, 12-1.

Third place — Alvarez pin. Gomez.

Championship — Jack Barnes, SAHS, pin. Josiah Allen, Kubasaki, 2:46.

Heavyweight — Tyler Lamson, King, pin. Moziah Stewart; Jacob Martin, Zama, pin. Siu Fuimaono.

Fifth place — Stewart pin. Fuimaono.

Third place — Martin pin. Lamson.

Championship — Christian Fernandez, Kubasaki, pin. Chris Deibel, Kinnick, :40.

Ramstein maintainer to serve time for role in wreck that killed German

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — An airman with the 86th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron will serve one month in jail and lose a stripe for his role in a fatal motor vehicle crash that killed a German motorcyclist.

Charles McCollum II, reduced in rank to technical sergeant, pleaded guilty in a court-martial this week at Ramstein to one count of negligent homicide.

The charge stems from a June 15, 2013, accident near Waldmohr in which McCollum turned left into the path of Karsten Bauerfeld’s oncoming motorcycle, Capt. Grethe Hahn, a senior trial counsel at Ramstein and the lead prosecutor for the government, said in an interview Thursday. While braking hard to avoid a collision, Bauerfeld, 45, from Hütschenhausen, flipped over his bike and struck the back passenger door of McCollum’s sedan. He died at the scene, Hahn said.

An aggravating circumstance in the case was that McCollum had been drinking the day of the accident. He testified under oath that he had consumed four beers throughout the morning while attending a squadron golf tournament and luncheon on Ramstein, where he worked as a C-130 maintainer, Hahn said.

After the event, McCollum drove to a friend’s house off base to pick up his children, spending about an hour there, Hahn said. The accident occurred on his way home at about 3 in the afternoon. “He sees an oncoming car and he also sees the motorcyclist,” Hahn said. “He lets the oncoming car go and turns in front of” the motorcyclist.

The German police told Air Force investigators there had been three previous accidents at the same intersection — L355 turning onto L354 — in the past three years, including a fatality, Hahn said.

McCollum’s blood-alcohol content was an estimated 0.067 at the time of the accident, below the legal limit to be criminally liable for drunken driving under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Hahn said.

The Air Force alleged that McCollum’s decision to drink and drive was conduct that brought discredit upon the armed forces. “If members of the public were to hear” an airman had been drinking and driving and killed a man, that might tend to lower their opinion of the Air Force, she said.

As part of a pretrial agreement, McCollum’s commander agreed not to consider the outcome of his court-martial when he comes up for re-enlistment in June, Hahn said. McCollum has been in the Air Force for 18 years.

svan.jennifer@stripes.com

Clay Hunt bill: Obama signs veterans suicide prevention law

WASHINGTON — Acknowledging the struggles of the nation's veterans, President Barack Obama on Thursday signed legislation intended to reduce the high rate of suicide that is claiming the lives of soldiers and former members of the military by the day.

"If you are hurting, know this. You are not forgotten," Obama said as he prepared to affix his signature to the law amid a rare bipartisan gathering at the White House.

The law, which had broad support from Republicans and Democrats, requires the Pentagon and Veterans Affairs Department to submit to independent reviews of their suicide prevention programs and make information on suicide prevention more easily available to veterans.

The law also offers financial incentives to psychiatrists and other mental health professionals who agree to work for the VA and assist military members as they transition from active duty to veteran status. A 2013 VA study reported that veterans were committing suicide at a rate of 22 a day in 2010, with nearly 70 percent of them being 50 years old or older. The incidence of post-traumatic stress among soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan has also attracted widespread attention.

"Too many of our troops and veterans are still struggling," Obama said. "They are recovering from injuries; they are mourning fallen comrades; they're trying to reconnect with family and friends who can never fully understand what they went through in war theater.

"For many of them, the war goes on in the flashbacks that come rushing forward, and the nightmares that don't go away," Obama said.

The bill carries the name of Clay Hunt, a 28-year-old Marine veteran who struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hunt killed himself in 2011 in Texas.

"He suffered physical injuries that healed, and he suffered invisible sounds that stayed with him," Obama said. "By all accounts he was selfless, and he was brave."

Among those who attended the signing were Republican Sens. John McCain, a frequent critic of Obama's military policy, and Johnny Isakson of Georgia, the new chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Obama singled out McCain, a Vietnam veteran and former POW, as "somebody who knows a little bit about service."

Members of Hunt's family also attended the ceremony, as did one of his close friends, Jake Wood, who introduced Obama.

"Clay's parents are Texas Republicans, that's just not just run-of-the-mill Republicans," Obama said. "And they worked with the entire spectrum — conservatives, liberals — and that's just a reminder of what we can accomplish when we take a break from the partisan bickering that so often dominates this town."

In an interview earlier this week, Hunt's mother, Susan Selke, said the bill signing would release a mix of emotions.

"I am sorry and sad that when our son needed the mental health care that he was promised when he joined the Marines, it wasn't there for him," she said. "But today our government is taking a very important step in honoring its promise to our veterans. It is too late for Clay, but we can help - we can save - the other vets who need care."

McCain this week said Hunt's story has "directed attention and inspired action for all those who have suffered from the serious shortcomings of our VA health system."

"We still have a long, long way to go to reduce the rate of suicide among our veterans, but this bill is an important step forward in fulfilling our promise to the men and women who have sacrificed on our behalf and to whom we are forever indebted," McCain said.

Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

House bill calls for DOD to publish names of military sex offenders

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department would be required to publish a database of all convicted military sex offenders under new legislation introduced Thursday by House lawmakers.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., and Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., is aimed at closing a legal loophole allowing servicemembers to self-report their convictions to law enforcement — civilians are automatically added to such registries — while also making DOD sex crime records available to communities across the country.

The lawmakers said they are concerned those convicted in courts martial are leaving the services and disappearing back into civilian life where their past is unknown. A recent investigation by the Scripps news service found that 242 military sex offenders out of 1,300 cases examined were never recorded on any public registry, despite a federal law that makes it a felony to ignore reporting requirements.

“When you have somebody convicted of a sexual crime, the rate of recidivism is extremely high,” Coffman said. “Given the opportunity, they will re-offend.”

Speier said the bill creates a DOD registry for those convicted of rape, sexual assault and other sex-based offenses similar to the registries kept by local governments, states and law enforcement agencies across the country. The registries are designed to reduce repeat offenses by letting communities know if a sex offender is living nearby and what crimes they committed.

Sex offenders are required to register immediately after their convictions or when they are released from prison and report to authorities where they live, work and go to school. The bill would add the global and often transient military community to the system by requiring the DOD to perform and publish its own registry, rather than relying on other civilian authorities to distribute the information.

Speier said the DOD database would also include descriptions of each offender’s crimes beyond a list of military convictions such as “conduct unbecoming” that can obscure the nature of what was done. She recounted incidents in which a servicemember had several 12-year-olds walk on his chest in high heels, and touch his genitals. In another case, an airmen posed as a doctor and persuaded a woman to submit to pelvic exams even after a conviction for the same acts.

She said Thursday that there was no projected cost for the database and new reporting.

Don Christensen, a retired Air Force prosecutor and director of the advocacy group Protect Our Defenders, also came out in support of the legislation, saying it would help solve a much bigger problem with reducing and prosecuting sexual assault in the ranks.

“That makes this all the more absurd, that when we do bring these criminals to justice, they are essentially released into the civilian world and giving a clean slate,” he said.

A similar registry bill was introduced in the Senate last week by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.

That legislation calls for military sex offenders to be automatically added into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center. But that database is used primarily by law enforcement and not accessible by the public.

tritten.travis@stripes.com

Twitter: @Travis_Tritten

Watchdog: DOD ignored troop health risks, continued to burn trash in Afghanistan

The U.S. military knowingly put troops’ health at risk and wasted tens of millions of dollars on shoddy contracts while operating dangerous open-air burn pits in Afghanistan, according to a report from the government’s top watchdog there.

“Although DOD knew about the risks associated with open-air burn pits long before contingency operations began in Afghanistan, it was not until 2009 that U.S. Central Command developed policies and procedures to guide solid waste management, including requirements for operating, monitoring, and minimizing the use of open-air burn bits,” according to a report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

It’s still unclear how many troops were sickened by burn pits but their widespread use in Iraq and Afghanistan — sometimes against Central Command’s own directives — means related illnesses could represent the latest health crisis for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, with echoes of Agent Orange in Vietnam. Many troops who say they were downwind from the smoke from base burn pits have reported a wide range of maladies, including severe respiratory problems.

At the mission’s peak in 2011, when there 110,000 American troops in Afghanistan, the U.S. military was producing 440 tons of waste per day. Despite a 2009 U.S. Central Command rule that bases over a certain size were to find alternatives to burn-pits in order to dispose of waste, many bases continued to use the pits, even burning prohibited items, such as batteries and tires, according to the report.

As late as August 2010, Central Command reported that there were 251 active open-air burn pits in Afghanistan.

“The overall approach to its solid waste disposal in Afghanistan was haphazard and reactive,” the report says.

The report SIGAR report is the culmination of two years of work that took investigators to several bases in Afghanistan to inspect waste-disposal mechanisms. To replace burn pits, many bases turned to incinerators, but installation and use were plagued by missteps and some contractors were paid for inadequate work, according to the report.

At at least four major bases, at a cost of more than $20 million, the military installed incinerators that were never used, according to the report.

Officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers disputed some of the findings, saying that some of the incinerators SIGAR says were not in use were operational upon installation with just minor problems. They added that some of the incinerators that were not used were never turned on because of imminent base closure due to the drawdown of U.S. troops.

In their response to the report, U.S. Forces-Afghanistan officials said they generally concurred with the reports findings, though they took issue with what they saw as an “oversimplification” of the issues surrounding using burn pits and incinerators in a combat environment.

“The safety of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and civilians is always our top priority,” Murray says in the letter. “Although this report clearly identifies areas for improvement, it does not fully account for the difficult and complex operational environment that led commanders to make some very difficult decisions.”

druzin.heath@stripes.com

Twitter: @Druzin_Stripes

POW/MIA agency dig site could hold Marine missing from Vietnam War

The newly established Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has dispatched a remains recovery team to the Cambodian island of Koh Tang, where three Marines were left behind following the final battle of the Vietnam War.

The excavation site is believed to hold the remains of Lance Cpl. Joseph Hargrove, Pfc. Gary Hall or Pvt. Danny Marshall, according to official documents from DPMAA’s predecessor, the Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Accounting Command.

The three-man gun team was left behind in the confusion of a troop withdrawal following a brutal May 15, 1975, battle between about 200 U.S. Marines and entrenched Cambodian Khmer Rouge soldiers in what became known as the “Mayaguez Incident.”

The dig began Jan. 14 and is expected to run through the end of March.

The location of excavation site has not been made public, but it’s likely to be one of two areas where the heaviest fighting occurred. In 2013, a seven-member JPAC investigation team spent a week on the island’s east and west beaches.

Months later, JPAC told Stars and Stripes that the team did find enough evidence to bring one site before the administrative body that decides whether to allocate funds for a dig.

A recovery operation, such as the one ongoing on Koh Tang, means that the site was approved by the board, and the likelihood of finding remains is high.

Officials have declined numerous requests from Stars and Stripes for information related to the excavations.

“This is an ongoing mission and details can’t be discussed at this time,” DPMAA spokeswoman Lt. Col. Melinda Morgan said.

However, the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office has declassified some of the documents since the investigative dig occurred. Heavily redacted copies are housed in Texas Tech University’s Vietnam War archives.

According to a document dated November 2013, investigators found a water well where former Khmer Rouge soldiers claimed they killed and buried an American soldier after the battle.

Any American remains found there would likely belong to Hargrove, because most accounts say that Hall and Marshall were taken to the mainland and executed.

In additional to Hargrove, Hall and Marshall, two other servicemembers remain missing from the battle.

Lance Cpl. Ashton Loney’s body was left behind on west beach in the haste of the withdrawal, and former claimed he was buried on the beach. There is no public record of his body being recovered, or his remains identified.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Elwood Rumbaugh was lost at sea near a downed helicopter.

Although that site has been located, according to the Texas Tech documents, it was not been explored at the time due to inclement weather. No other recovery operations have been announced.

Left behind

In May 1975, Khmer Rouge forces captured the SS Mayaguez, an American container ship, several nautical miles off the coast of the Cambodian island of Poulo Wai. It didn’t take long for President Gerald Ford to authorize a rescue operation.

In the two-battle that followed, 38 U.S. servicemembers were killed and approximately 50 were wounded. The ship and crew were released shortly thereafter.

Immediately after the battle, when it became apparent that Hargrove, Hall and Marshall were unaccounted for, Navy SEALs and Marines asked to make a rescue attempt for the missing but were denied. U.S. Navy ships were recalled from the area, closing the chapter on U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia.

While accounts of enemy combatants differ, most say that Hargrove was captured on Koh Tang and executed. Hall and Marshall were taken to the mainland and executed there.

Since the early 1990s, documents show that JPAC investigators have excavated sites, both on the mainland and on Koh Tang, and have collected numerous fragments and sets of remains, including as recently as 2008.

During an excavation in 2008, a set of remains that was unearthed was determined to likely be Caucasian, according to Charles Ray, former ambassador to Cambodia and deputy assistant secretary of defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs.

JPAC documents state four samples were sent for analysis. It’s not made clear in the documents if the samples are something as small as bone fragments or as large as full sets of remains.

No results from any of the excavations on Koh Tang and subsequent analysis have been made public.

Running out of time

Members of Hargrove’s family hope his remains soon will be returned.

“By them being on the island, I hope it is a good sign that we will be receiving Joseph’s remains soon,” said Hargrove’s cousin, Cary Turner. “I’ll keep praying they will do the right thing and send Joseph home.”

But, the time to recover the remains is running short.

A Russian consortium leased the island from the Cambodian government in 2008, and construction has already begun on what will one day be a casino, resorts, a seven-hotel complex and luxury villas aimed at drawing 300,000 tourists annually from China, Korea and Japan.

“POW/MIA investigators will lose access to the island once the investment company moves in full-time to develop the resort,” an accounting document from March 2013 said. “A Cambodian POW/MIA committee member emphasized the urgency of conducting Tang Island investigations as soon as possible.”

burke.matt@stripes.com