A Navy vet makes final flight home on World War II Avenger

Clifford Klein, a turret gunner on an Avenger bomber during World War II, will take his last ride in one of those aircraft over his former Blasdell home later this week, a few days before his funeral.

Klein, who lived most of his life in Blasdell, died March 12 at a nursing home in Kirtland, Ohio, at age 89.

During the last two years of World War II, he sat in the cramped turret on an Avenger flying off the aircraft carrier Bon Homme Richard.

After the war, Klein returned to Blasdell and married his wife, Rita. They raised three children in a house he built on Wabash Avenue next to his childhood home. He was a union carpenter for John W. Cowper Construction. Klein also joined the Big Tree Volunteer Fire Company in 1955.

After his wife died in 2012, Klein moved to Ohio to be near his son, Jeff, and eventually entered a nursing home.

He never talked about his time in the war, until the last couple of years, when his 11-year-old grandson, Victor, a history buff, asked him about his war experiences. Victor also introduced his grandfather to a man who had restored an Avenger.

And now the pilot, Charlie Cartledge, is donating his Avenger and his time to fly Klein’s cremains to Western New York one last time. Rita’s cremains will join those of her husband on the trip back to Blasdell. Jeff will carry the urn.

Part of the fuel cost for the trip will be paid by a special fund for memorial flyovers set up at the Liberty Aviation Museum in Port Clinton, Ohio.

“This is our way of honoring these World War II guys who gave so much,” Cartledge said. “All these guys are in their 90s. We’re on a limited time to meet them, and to thank them and hear their stories.”

The plane carrying the cremains will sweep up the shoreline of Lake Erie, where Klein used to fish for pike and perch, turn west up Lake Avenue in Blasdell, past AMVETS Post 897, where Klein was a member.

Then it will fly over South Park Avenue, circle over Wabash Avenue, and go down South Park, flying over the Big Tree Fire Company.

Volunteer firefighters will place their equipment in the parking lot, lights flashing and sirens blaring as a chair, draped with turnout gear, sits in a final salute to their comrade.

The timing of the fly over depends on the weather, but it is planned for the middle to latter part of this week.

The pilot is looking for clear and warmer weather, because there is no heat in the Avenger.

The aircraft, traveling at 200 mph with its powerful, 1,900-horsepower engine, will be noticeable.

“It’s loud and it’s got a large radial engine,” Cartledge said.

A funeral Mass will take place at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Klein’s parish, Our Mother of Good Counsel Catholic Church on South Park Avenue in Blasdell.

“This whole thing started with my son,” Jeff Klein said of Victor.

Victor talks proudly of his grandfather. Victor was on a Boy Scout trip to a National Hot Rod Association drag race when Cartledge did a flyover at the race. Victor talked his father into going to the Cleveland Air Show to see the plane up close. They went in August, and Cartledge suggested they bring Clifford Klein back the following day.

Klein chatted with people at the show. One of the stories he told was about Typhoon Cobra in 1944, known as Halsey’s Typhoon, for Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, who commanded the fleet that sailed into the typhoon, losing three destroyers.

“That was the saddest day of my life, when those destroyers went down,” Klein told plane buffs at the show.

He spent the rest of the day sitting on his walker under the wing of the Avenger. People stood in line to meet him, talk to him and get his autograph. He also signed the door of the aircraft, an honor Cartledge reserves for those who have served in an Avenger.

Klein then returned to the nursing home, Golden Living Centers, not far from Cleveland.

The Navy veteran was stricken and went to the hospital three days before he died.

After a day and a half there, he insisted on returning to the nursing home, under Hospice care. An ambulance crew took him back.

“When he saw that squad, he smiled from ear to ear,” Jeff Klein recalled.

He chatted pleasantly with the crew members, telling them about the Big Tree Fire Company.

“Thank you, I’m going home, guys,” he told them. “This is going to be by my last squad ride ever.”

EMTs told his son that Cliff Klein asked them to let the driver know he was in a bit of a hurry, and if traffic became an issue, he wanted the driver to “light the squad up.” He told them he had someplace to be, and he did not want to be late.

Clifford Klein died the next day. He would have turned 90 on April 20.

The aviation machinist’s mate third class will be buried Saturday with the cremains of his wife at Hillcrest Cemetery, passing the Big Tree Fire Hall one last time on the way to the cemetery.

———

©2015 The Buffalo News (Buffalo, N.Y.)

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Army suspends Rodriguez Range operations as errant shell inquiry continues

The Army in South Korea has stopped firing the mobile gun system on its Stryker vehicles as it investigates why one vehicle errantly fired a 105mm round that struck the home of a man living near the Rodriguez Range complex on March 29.

Army officials said the investigation will review three areas: whether the system operators followed procedure, if the gun system worked properly, and if the training event accounted for all variables, such as the rocky terrain.

RELATED: Errant shell puts US military's lessons learned in Korea to the test

“We are as equally concerned about the safety of our local communities as we would be back home,” 8th Army spokesman Col. Shawn Stroud said.

Units using the Stryker, a wheeled armored vehicle, aren’t permanently based in South Korea, but some do rotate to the peninsula for training, Army officials said.

Although the Army awaits the investigation results, there are preliminary indications of what might have occurred.

The 105mm, non-explosive training round used by the Stryker gun system is supposed to break apart upon hitting its range target.

In this case, the round was found intact after it punctured the homeowner’s roof, ricocheted off metal reinforcement bars and landed in a field, South Korean police and fire officials told Stars and Stripes.

At Rodriguez Range and other live-fire locations, the military computes “danger zones” that determine where rounds should be fired, based on factors like terrain and trajectory. South Korea-specific training for servicemembers, range safety officers, master gunners and after-action video also contribute to safety efforts, officials said.

The 3,390-acre complex had been used by battalion-level or higher commands on all but eight days this year, as of April 1. The Army, Marines and Air Force all use the complex, as do their South Korean counterparts.

The incident came as part of Foal Eagle, an annual bilateral exercise involving several thousand servicemembers throughout the country.

slavin.erik@stripes.com

Twitter: @eslavin_stripes

Man found at sea after 66 days: 'For such a long a time I was so thirsty'

PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Adrift on the ocean, the mast of his 35-foot sailboat torn away, Louis Jordan says he was able to survive more than two months at sea by catching rainwater in a bucket, scooping up fish that were attracted to the laundry he hung over the side, and fervently praying to God for help.

Early Friday, just hours after he was found by a passing German freighter, the bearded 37-year-old man walked out of a Norfolk hospital showing no obvious ill effects.

"We were expecting worse, with blisters and severe sunburn and dehydration," said Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Kyle McCollum, a member of the helicopter crew who brought Jordan to shore.

Jordan hadn't been heard from since Jan. 23, when he set out on a fishing expedition aboard the single-masted 1950s-era sailboat that had been his home for months at a marina in South Carolina.

It was unclear how long after leaving port that the boat was damaged, the Coast Guard said.

Jordan was plucked from the Atlantic about 200 miles off the North Carolina coast on Thursday afternoon after furiously waving down the container ship.

His boat was upright, but the mast had broken off in heavy weather, and the vessel appeared to have flipped over repeatedly, said Thomas Grenz, captain of the German container ship.

Jordan asked his Coast Guard rescuers to drop him off without seeking medical care, but he was taken to a hospital anyway as a precaution.

He demonstrated a firm handshake and weary-looking blue eyes before declining an interview with The Associated Press on Friday.

In interviews with other news organizations, he described making pancakes out of flour fried in oil, collecting rainwater with a bucket, and using a net to catch fish that would swim in and out of his clothes when he put them over the side to rinse them.

He told WAVY-TV in Portsmouth, Va., that he rationed his water to about a pint a day.

"Every day I was like, 'Please God, send me some rain, send me some water,'" he said.

Jordan had been living on his boat in Conway, South Carolina, near Myrtle Beach. He told his family he was going into open water to sail and fish, said his mother, Norma Davis.

Grenz, the German captain, said Jordan told him he had set out with about a month's worth of provisions.

On Jan. 29, the Coast Guard in Miami was notified by the sailor's father that he hadn't seen or heard from his son in a week.

Alerts were issued from New Jersey to Miami, and the Coast Guard began a search Feb. 8 but abandoned it 10 days later after failing to confirm any sightings, officials said.

Jeff Weeks, who manages the marina where Jordan docked his boat, said he is highly capable of fending for himself.

"He is somewhat of a person who stays to himself," Weeks said. "I consider him a gentle giant with a good personality. But he likes to be self-sufficient. Here at the marina, he liked to catch most all of the food that he'd eat. He would eat a lot of rice and fish. And he would know what berries and what mushrooms to pick. He was really knowledgeable on some survival skills."

Grenz said he made a copy of Jordan's U.S. passport describing the American as weighing 290 pounds. Jordan is now probably only about 200 pounds, and he looked little like the man in the passport photo, Grenz said.

"It was a bit like the movie of Tom Hanks on that movie, you know, 'Cast Away,'" Grenz said.

Associated Press writers Allen Breed in Jacksonville, N.C.; Bruce Smith in Charleston, S.C.; Pam Ramsey in Charleston, W.Va.; and Tom Foreman Jr. in Charlotte contributed to this report.

Philadelphia woman accused of trying to join, martyr self for Islamic State

PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia woman was arrested Friday on charges she tried to join and martyr herself for the Islamic State group, a day after two women in New York were charged with plotting to wage jihad by building a bomb and using it for a Boston Marathon-type attack.

Keonna Thomas, 30, was preparing to fly to Spain with hopes of reaching Syria to fight with the terror group, authorities said. Instead, she was arrested at her family's town house in a public housing development, which has three small U.S. flags adorning the porch.

Authorities said she communicated with an Islamic State group fighter in Syria who asked if she wanted to be part of a martyrdom operation. She told the fighter that the opportunity "would be amazing, ... a girl can only wish," according to the documents.

A federal magistrate ordered Thomas held pending a detention hearing Wednesday. Prosecutors will oppose bail.

Last month, Thomas bought a ticket to fly to Barcelona on March 29. She likely planned to take a bus to Istanbul and then reach Syria, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case. Authorities put a stop to the trip when they raided her house March 27.

In court, Thomas wore a burqa as she acknowledged she understood the charge against her — attempting to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization. She was appointed a public defender, who did not comment on the charge.

Thomas appeared to show little emotion as she was led out of the house Friday morning in handcuffs, neighbor Ronni Patterson said. Patterson said she had seen investigators searching the home, where Thomas appeared to live with her mother and grandmother, a week ago.

"She came and went. She didn't bother no one," the neighbor said.

The women in the New York case are accused of plotting to wage violent jihad by building a bomb and using it for an attack like the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. They were ordered held without bail after a brief court appearance Thursday. The lawyer for one of them said his client will plead not guilty.

Thomas is charged with attempting to provide material aid to terrorists, one of the same charges filed in 2010 against another Pennsylvania woman, Colleen LaRose, known as Jihad Jane, and two co-defendants in a terror plot that prosecutors say also involved online messages and recruitment for overseas terror suspects.

"The incentive for terrorists is (also) ... to create fear, just by that ability to recruit within the U.S. They want to show everyone they have geographic reach and appeal," said defense lawyer Jeremy Ibrahim, a former Justice Department lawyer who represented LaRose's co-defendant Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, of Colorado. "But when you look at who actually responds to their calling, the women tend to be vulnerable."

Authorities have said foreign terrorists seek U.S. women because their Western looks and American passports make it easier for them to travel overseas.

Thomas' posts in support of the Islamic State group started in August 2013, when she reposted a Twitter photograph of a boy holding weapons, authorities said. She called herself Fatayat Al Khilafah and YoungLioness and tweeted posts such as "When you're a mujahid, your death becomes a wedding," according to the FBI affidavit filed in the case. A mujahid is one who engages in jihad.

She began trying to raise money for the cause online and told a Somalia-based jihadi fighter from Minnesota that she soon hoped to have enough money to travel, authorities said.

She applied for a passport in February and on March 26 bought a round-trip ticket to fly to Barcelona — a tourist destination that would not raise eyebrows, the FBI affidavit said.

LaRose got a 10-year term in January for agreeing to kill a Swedish artist who had offended Muslims, while Paulin-Ramirez, who married an Algerian terror suspect the day she met him in Ireland, is serving eight years.

An immigrant teen from Pakistan who met LaRose online when he was an honors student in suburban Baltimore was sentenced to five years in the case. All three agreed to cooperate with authorities, shaving years off their sentences.

Associated Press writer Sean Carlin contributed to this report.

Army Ranger School will have 1st female students

By Dan Lamothe

The Washington Post

Published: April 3, 2015

WASHINGTON — The first version of the elite Army Ranger School to include female students is set to begin April 20 with at least 12 women participating, following the recent completion of a required prerequisite course by six more female soldiers.

The latest wave of women passed the 16-day Ranger Training and Assessment Course (RTAC) on March 19, doubling the amount approved to attend, Army officials said. The assessment course resembles aspects of the grueling 62-day Ranger School, which includes phases in the jungle, mountains and swamp and is considered among the toughest courses in combat in the world.

Top Army officials opened the Ranger School course beginning April 20 to women on a one-time basis as the Defense Department grapples with what jobs should be opened to women for the first time as part of a greater integration of the sexes in the military. The women who pass will not be allowed to become elite members of the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment, which remains closed to female soldiers. But they will be considered trail blazers by many and allowed to wear the service's prestigious Ranger tab.

The latest assessment course included 34 women, of which six (17.6 percent) passed, and 85 men, of which 25 (29.4 percent) finished. It's the third preparatory RTAC class since the Army announced it was integrating the Ranger School course later this month. One more RTAC course will be held beginning Friday, with those who pass joining those who made it through the previous three RTAC at Ranger School.

Historically, more than half of the soldiers who complete the RTAC course go on to successfully complete Ranger School, Army officials said.

There's a fair amount of variation in how women — and men, for that matter — have fared in the recent RTAC courses. In the frigid version that ran from Feb. 6 to 21, one of 17 women and 35 of 83 men passed. The first RTAC with women concluded Jan. 30 with five of 26 women and 53 of 96 men completing it, Army officials said.

Including women in Ranger School and other elite courses has been debated by active-duty troops and veterans alike. Some have argued that if women can meet the requirements for physically demanding jobs such as infantryman, they should be able to fill a job. Others say that there are too many cultural and logistical issues to allow the women to serve in units that currently only include men.

Marine gets 26 years for rape, kidnap of Anchorage woman

53 minutes ago

By Jerzy Shedlock

(Anchorage) Alaska Dispatch News (TNS)

Published: April 4, 2015

(Tribune Content Agency) — A U.S. Marine has been sentenced to 26 years in federal prison for the sexual assault and kidnapping of an Anchorage woman in August 2013, according to Anchorage police.

James Hale III, 35, was convicted Thursday of first-degree sexual assault, kidnapping and other misdemeanors.

Hale was a staff sergeant stationed in Anchorage at the time of the rape, police said. He was dishonorably discharged and stripped of his rank following a court-martial, they said.

The police department originally investigated the case. On Aug. 26, 2013, Special Victims Unit detectives began investigating the rape of a woman in the Spenard neighborhood the night prior.

“It was reported to police that the adult female was driven by the suspect to a location in Spenard and held at gunpoint while the male sexually assaulted her,” police said in a news release Friday.

The woman did not know her attacker, police said.

Detective Brett Sarber eventually identified Hale, who processed incoming recruits, as a suspect. He was not acting as a recruiter when the crimes occurred, police said.

Hale was charged and arrested in February 2014, but the Marine Corps asked to take over the prosecution of the case. The Marines worked with local law enforcement and judicial agencies to convict Hale, police said.

Defense attorney Capt. Aaron Stark said he was not authorized to comment on the court-martial.

Hale will remain at Anchorage Correctional Complex until the Marines transfer him to a federal prison.

©2015 the (Anchorage) Alaska Dispatch News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Former SEAL accused of fabricating story speaks about not guilty verdict

(Tribune Content Agency) — Former Navy SEAL Christopher Heben had a message Friday for those who might doubt a jury’s not guilty verdicts in his trial on falsification charges.

“There’s always going to be nay-sayers, and the court of public opinion is a very vicious and malicious court. I think we, as a nation, have lost the whole concept of ‘innocent until proven guilty,’?” Heben said.

Anyone who doesn’t trust the jury’s decision, he said, should to go to the News Channel 5 website and request a copy of the trial’s streaming video.

“Take 16 or 18 hours out of your life and watch it, and maybe that’ll change your opinion,” Heben said. “But I’m not going to try to sway your opinion here. We all say you can’t please everyone, and that’s the truth.”

Heben commented on the verdict for the first time in a scheduled news conference Friday morning at the downtown Akron office of his lawyer, James L. Burdon.

An Akron Municipal Court jury got the case Wednesday afternoon following two days of prosecution and defense testimony. After only 35 minutes of deliberations, the eight-member panel found Heben not guilty of fabricating a story about being shot last spring in the parking lot of the Mustard Seed Market and Cafe in West Akron.

He had been charged with obstructing official business and falsification.

The year-old misdemeanor case “was very disturbing and distressing,” Heben said, and also hurt him financially.

“I wont give a dollar amount, but it was very, very substantial, I will say that. Seven figures. Without being too exact, it was a seven-figure loss over the course of the last year,” he said.

Heben, who served as a SEAL from 1996 to 2006, is a motivational speaker, a news media source on special operations teams and president and founder of the INVICTVS Group, a veterans consortium that provides corporate and personal security training.

Burdon began the news conference by informing reporters and television crews that it was not a forum for questions that police or prosecutors would ask.

Heben applauded the service of federal, state and local police officers, hundreds of whom he has personally trained, he said, and thanked the jury for its decision.

“They made the correct decision and the right decision. I’ve maintained my innocence the whole time,” he said, “and it was the right decision.”

©2015 the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

NCO awarded Soldier's Medal for rescuing trapped Afghan soldiers

(Tribune Content Agency) — Army 1st Sgt. William Howard looked puzzled as a roomful of soldiers, family and friends congratulated him at an awards ceremony Friday morning at Fort Eustis, Va.

Col. Donald Fallin had presented Howard with the Soldier's Medal, which is awarded for heroism and is the highest honor a soldier can receive for an act of valor in a noncombat situation.

Howard and a few other men rescued five Afghan soldiers from a fire last July in Afghanistan.

"I appreciate it very much, but it's just not what I expected," said Howard, who just returned from that deployment in February.

On July 3, 2014, Howard pried open a door to free trapped Afghans from the Joint Aviation Facility after a direct rocket attack, according to the citation from the Army that accompanied his award. He twice entered the burning building that was rapidly filling with smoke and heat, located casualties, cleared the building and assisted his fellow first responders.

"I didn't really feel anything," he said. "The incident happened, and I reacted with four other individuals. I never really gave it much thought."

Howard, 44, has been assigned to the 128th Aviation Brigade at Fort Eustis since 2012. He has been in the Army since 1991 and has been deployed six times.

He said the fire that prompted the rescue of the five Afghan soldiers occurred around lunchtime. He and two other soldiers heard a boom, felt a vibration and went to check out what had happened.

They went outside and headed in the direction of smoke. One of the other men heard banging from inside a locked door.

He didn't really think but just acted, he said.

"We just started using anything we could to pry it open — pried it open and got the five Afghans out," Howard said. "That was pretty much it, really. I don't know how else to explain it."

His wife, Staci Viafore, said she was extremely proud of her husband and called the award "a great honor."

"The deployments have been long and difficult, so it's nice to see him recognized," she said.

During the presentation, Fallin lauded Howard's leadership and positive impact on morale as part of his unit in Afghanistan.

"1st Sgt. Howard's one of those guys that whenever you need something, he's the guy you can reach out to," Fallin said. "It was an honor to serve alongside him."

Howard talked about the impact of the rescue on the U.S. soldiers' relationship with the Afghans.

"Over the course of the next couple months, because we were working with them day in and day out, they would come up periodically and thank us and give you a hug and ask you how you were doing," he said.

"It was awesome working with the Afghans. I had a great experience of being able to be with them and to work with them and learn their culture."

Though he said he would like a break from deployments, he is interested in helping them further.

"I would love to experience working with the Afghans, being around that culture and helping them succeed," Howard said. "And that's what it's all about ... helping them build their country back up from the rubble, and continue to move forward and become prosperous."

He called his experience with the Afghans "unreal."

"It was just awesome," Howard said. "One of the greatest experiences I've ever had."

He was assigned to a new unit on Thursday and is looking to get acclimated and relax for a while.

"It feels like since I got back, I've been going 900 miles an hour and I haven't really been able to stop and slow down," Howard said. "So I just want to kind of relax, spend time with my family and enjoy the nice weather."

©2015 the (Newport News, Va.) Daily Press. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Israeli leader's staunch opposition might help sell nuclear deal in Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (Tribune Content Agency) — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sought Friday to sell hard-liners on the merits of a preliminary deal that would eventually lift crippling economic sanctions in exchange for placing limits on his country’s controversial nuclear program.

“Some think we have to fight the world or surrender. We think there is a third way: cooperation,” he said in a speech on Iranian TV, even as there were stirrings of suspicion among mullahs who were gathering at the mosques for Friday prayers.

In Israel, meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was describing the nuclear framework as a naive sellout by the six foreign powers that brokered it. He predicted it would pave the way for Iran to build a nuclear weapon.

“Israel will not accept an agreement which allows a country that vows to annihilate us to develop nuclear weapons,” he declared. “Period.”

The stark contrast in the leadership of the two countries, which are sworn enemies, might in fact prove a valuable asset to Iranian pragmatists who are now trying to sell a prospective nuclear deal and see it through to a binding agreement.

In the labyrinthine world of Middle East politics, the harder Israel opposes the plan announced Thursday in the Swiss city of Lausanne, the better it looks in Iran.

Tehran’s broad endorsement of an agreement aimed at deterring nuclear weapons development while leaving Iran’s civilian atomic infrastructure in place also marked a dramatic change in Iran’s political posture that dates back decades, epitomized by grainy images of helpless American hostages in the hands of Islamic revolutionaries who seized the U.S. Embassy in 1979.

In a country where chants of “Death to Israel!” can seem as commonplace as a salutation, the Israeli leader’s staunch denunciations of the deal may help overcome the reservations of Iranian hard-liners who believe Tehran is conceding too much under Western pressure.

Netanyahu on Friday reiterated his strident opposition to the prospective accord, saying it would “threaten the very survival of the state of Israel.”

By attacking the terms of the preliminary pact after a hasty gathering of his security cabinet, Netanyahu has given ammunition to figures such as Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was a key figure in hammering out the deal.

Zarif, who returned to Tehran on Friday from the Lausanne talks, sought to calm any hard-line opposition, declaring in a post on Twitter that “the solutions are good for all, as they stand.”

The Iranian people as a whole needed little prodding to get on board. In Tehran, those who had celebrated Nowruz, the Persian new year, Thursday night flowed into the streets to cheer the late-night word that an accord had been reached, — offering the thrilling prospect of relief from harsh economic sanctions that have touched the lives of virtually everyone here.

In a stunning symbol of melting hostility between Iran and the West, President Barack Obama’s unfiltered words poured forth from Iranian TV screens, carried by state broadcasters, urging that the contentious talks continue toward the June 30 deadline.

Domestically, it would be hard to overstate how much is riding on this accord. Rouhani “has effectively staked … his political future on this nuclear deal and the attendant political and economic bonanza,” analyst Mahan Abdein wrote in the regional independent online publication Middle East Eye.

Rouhani said in a live address that Iran would honor pledges made in the nuclear talks, provided the other side does too.

Asked whether the negative reaction in Israel might help persuade Iran’s clerics that the agreement is good for them, Rand Corp. senior policy analyst Alireza Nader said he didn’t think Iranian mullahs put much stock in what Israeli hard-liners think about the accord.

“There’s a perception that Israel isn’t only against a nuclear deal for Iran but against Iran as a regional power. So naturally Israel is going to oppose this,” Nader said.

“If you look at the conservatives’ reactions in Iran, they have been largely supportive of the deal. Several Iranian officials and Friday prayer leaders have come out and supported it and are trying to portray it as a positive for Iran, because Iran retains most of its nuclear infrastructure. Iran does make a lot of concessions, and I think the government is trying to portray it in the best light possible, which is natural as they don’t want to admit they had to retreat on the nuclear program.”

Given the across-the-board support among Persian Gulf Arab states and the international community as a whole, Israeli leaders may find themselves further isolated in the Middle East if they persist in denouncing the Iran nuclear deal or take unilateral action against it, he said.

In Israel, commentators and politicians on Friday debated the ramifications, with some arguing that the deal as outlined is better than expected, and others declaring that all potential scenarios — including the possibility of a military strike — must remain on the table.

Debate was somewhat muted by the timing of the news, which came only hours before sundown Friday, the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover. More robust argument is likely in the coming week.

Netanyahu showed no sign of softening his stance, but some Israeli commentators described the preliminary nuclear terms as surprisingly favorable.

“If the framework presented becomes the final agreement … even Israel could learn to live with it,” commentator Ron Ben-Yishai wrote on the Ynet website. But he cautioned that “we must be wary of appearances — too many key issues still remain unresolved.”

Even before the outlines of the deal were announced, however, Israel refused to rule out a unilateral strike to quell Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said, “If we have no choice, we have no choice. The military option is on the table.”

The prospective deal revived argument over Israel’s crucial friendship with Washington. Obama’s decision to call Netanyahu to discuss the accord was seen by some as signaling a potential thaw in icy relations between prime minister and the White House, a rift that has been greatly exacerbated by the Iran nuclear issue. The Haaretz daily, however, characterized the two leaders’ conversation as “difficult.”

The prime minister infuriated the U.S. administration last month when he defied White House wishes and delivered a speech to a joint meeting of Congress lobbying against the president’s plan to try to strike a deal with Iran. Some urged Netanyahu to take advantage of an opportunity to get back in good graces with the U.S., saying such a course would allow Israel to wield more influence over the final shape of the accord.

Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, told Israel’s Channel 10 that Netanyahu should pursue a “grand strategy” of cooperating with the U.S. on the Palestinian issue and curtailing settlement activity outside established blocs, or risk further alienating Washington.

“The danger is that the disconnect with the U.S. will lead to a poor agreement with Iran, all for the sake of building in remote settlements that Israel will never keep in a future agreement,” Yadlin said.

He and others pointed out that there were options short of military action — for which there is some precedent, in the form of Israel’s surprise aerial bombardment in 1981 of an Iraqi nuclear reactor under construction.

“There’s a range of alternatives between a bad agreement and a military strike, and these are worth exploring because they exist,” Yadlin said before the pact was announced, citing steps such as tighter sanctions or clandestine actions.

Others said it would be difficult now for Netanyahu to climb down from his fierce opposition to any deal — particularly while he seeks to keep right-wing allies happy as he sets about forming a government after his party’s electoral success last month.

The conservative Jerusalem Post described the framework agreement with Iran as “terrifying.”

Special correspondent Mostaghim reported from Tehran and Times staff writer King from Cairo. Times staff writer Carol J. Williams in Los Angeles and special correspondent Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

©2015 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Army suspends Rodriguez Range operations as errant shell inquiry continues

The Army in South Korea has stopped firing the mobile gun system on its Stryker vehicles as it investigates why one vehicle errantly fired a 105mm round that struck the home of a man living near the Rodriguez Range complex on March 29.

Army officials said the investigation will review three areas: whether the system operators followed procedure, if the gun system worked properly, and if the training event accounted for all variables, such as the rocky terrain.

RELATED: Errant shell puts US military's lessons learned in Korea to the test

“We are as equally concerned about the safety of our local communities as we would be back home,” 8th Army spokesman Col. Shawn Stroud said.

Units using the Stryker, a wheeled armored vehicle, aren’t permanently based in South Korea, but some do rotate to the peninsula for training, Army officials said.

Although the Army awaits the investigation results, there are preliminary indications of what might have occurred.

The 105mm, non-explosive training round used by the Stryker gun system is supposed to break apart upon hitting its range target.

In this case, the round was found intact after it punctured the homeowner’s roof, ricocheted off metal reinforcement bars and landed in a field, South Korean police and fire officials told Stars and Stripes.

At Rodriguez Range and other live-fire locations, the military computes “danger zones” that determine where rounds should be fired, based on factors like terrain and trajectory. South Korea-specific training for servicemembers, range safety officers, master gunners and after-action video also contribute to safety efforts, officials said.

The 3,390-acre complex had been used by battalion-level or higher commands on all but eight days this year, as of April 1. The Army, Marines and Air Force all use the complex, as do their South Korean counterparts.

The incident came as part of Foal Eagle, an annual bilateral exercise involving several thousand servicemembers throughout the country.

slavin.erik@stripes.com

Twitter: @eslavin_stripes

Army Ranger School will have 1st female students

By Dan Lamothe

The Washington Post

Published: April 3, 2015

WASHINGTON — The first version of the elite Army Ranger School to include female students is set to begin April 20 with at least 12 women participating, following the recent completion of a required prerequisite course by six more female soldiers.

The latest wave of women passed the 16-day Ranger Training and Assessment Course (RTAC) on March 19, doubling the amount approved to attend, Army officials said. The assessment course resembles aspects of the grueling 62-day Ranger School, which includes phases in the jungle, mountains and swamp and is considered among the toughest courses in combat in the world.

Top Army officials opened the Ranger School course beginning April 20 to women on a one-time basis as the Defense Department grapples with what jobs should be opened to women for the first time as part of a greater integration of the sexes in the military. The women who pass will not be allowed to become elite members of the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment, which remains closed to female soldiers. But they will be considered trail blazers by many and allowed to wear the service's prestigious Ranger tab.

The latest assessment course included 34 women, of which six (17.6 percent) passed, and 85 men, of which 25 (29.4 percent) finished. It's the third preparatory RTAC class since the Army announced it was integrating the Ranger School course later this month. One more RTAC course will be held beginning Friday, with those who pass joining those who made it through the previous three RTAC at Ranger School.

Historically, more than half of the soldiers who complete the RTAC course go on to successfully complete Ranger School, Army officials said.

There's a fair amount of variation in how women — and men, for that matter — have fared in the recent RTAC courses. In the frigid version that ran from Feb. 6 to 21, one of 17 women and 35 of 83 men passed. The first RTAC with women concluded Jan. 30 with five of 26 women and 53 of 96 men completing it, Army officials said.

Including women in Ranger School and other elite courses has been debated by active-duty troops and veterans alike. Some have argued that if women can meet the requirements for physically demanding jobs such as infantryman, they should be able to fill a job. Others say that there are too many cultural and logistical issues to allow the women to serve in units that currently only include men.

Errant shell puts US military's lessons learned in Korea to the test

South Korea views the United States more favorably than almost every other country in the world, but history has proven that such goodwill is conditional.

In 2002, a U.S. Army armored vehicle driving on a road in Yangju struck and killed two South Korean girls. As much as the incident itself, the Army’s perceived indifference led to nationwide protests, influenced national elections and left a majority of the country viewing the U.S. unfavorably, according to a Pew Global Attitudes survey released the following year.

The Army’s shift to an “apologize first and determine the details later” approach is one legacy of that 2002 tragedy, when officials generally declined comment while the investigation proceeded.

Flash forward to March 29, when a 105mm training round punctured a roof and ricocheted into a field in a village near the sprawling Rodriguez Range complex, about 15 miles from Korea’s Demilitarized Zone.

Within hours, a two-star general went to the village to make amends, 8th Army officials told Stars and Stripes. The Army cut a check for the homeowner’s inconvenience on the spot, while South Korean soldiers fixed the roof.

Military officials emphasize a long list of safety procedures at Rodriguez Range. Nevertheless, incidents have occurred there periodically over decades, according to local officials.

Although none of the more recent incidents has caused any deaths, the question remains: If another Yangju-type tragedy occurred, would the U.S. face the same severe backlash?

“There is such explosive power if the U.S. attitude ignores South Korean [opinion],” said Kim Joon-hyung, an international politics professor at Handong Global University in Pohang.

However, Kim and others don’t think the U.S. would make that mistake again.

“I really don’t think there would be a repeat of a 2002-type event,” said Moon Chung-in, a Yonsei University political science professor. “It was a total lack of sensitivity on the part of the U.S. command that fueled the discontent with American forces. American commanders in South Korea have been very attentive afterward.”

South Korea’s importance to the U.S. as an ally has grown in recent years, as tensions have increased in the region.

Meanwhile, North Korea’s increased belligerence since 2002 — which has included shelling a South Korean island and sinking a South Korean navy ship — has proven the value of the U.S. alliance to South Koreans.

Last year, 82 percent of South Koreans viewed the U.S favorably, according to the Pew survey.

Those figures would be expected to fall if a U.S. military training incident resulted in South Korean deaths, but analysts don’t think U.S. support would collapse so readily.

Attitudes differ among residents living near the Rodriguez Range, which encompasses 3,390 acres in South Korea’s Gyeonggi province.

Before last month’s errant round, residents had planned a demonstration over noise and other incidents.

The potential for tragedy near Rodriguez Range was demonstrated in 1980, when nine residents working as security guards died on their way home after picking up shells that exploded, according to news accounts. At that time, South Korea’s authoritarian government left little room for protest.

Kim Young-woo, a Pocheon lawmaker who represents the nearby residents, said he hoped the military would conduct a thorough investigation of the most recent incident and prevent others.

“We go through shooting training for winning wars and keeping peace on the Korean peninsula,” Kim said. “Unnecessary accidents should not become diplomatic issues, should they?

“If someone is killed by fallen bullets or shells around the Rodriguez firing range, the situation could become lethal to the U.S.-South Korea alliance.”

The Army is conducting an investigation into the incident and will discuss the results with the community near the range upon completion, Army officials said last week.

Stars and Stripes reporter Yoo Kyong Chang contributed to this report.

slavin.erik@stripes.com

Twitter: @eslavin_stripes

Obama bets on solar jobs for veterans

WASHINGTON — Will solar be a hot new job market for veterans?

The Obama administration unveiled a program Friday that will train transitioning troops at 10 military bases across the country how to build and maintain solar energy farms, and prep them to become one of 75,000 employees it hopes to add to the solar workforce by 2020.

The future of solar energy seemed uncertain a generation ago when the Carter administration set lofty goals that fizzled. But the technology is becoming cheaper and more efficient, and the Defense Department — one of the world’s top energy users — has been adding solar facilities to bases in the United States and abroad at a rapid clip in recent years.

“We can’t maintain the best military the world has ever known unless we have an economy that is humming,” President Barack Obama said during a trip to Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

Obama said the initiative will help set up vets in an industry that is adding jobs 10 times faster than other areas of the economy.

“We want to ensure that after they’ve fought for our freedom [troops] have jobs to come home to,” he said.

The Solar Ready Vets program will teach veterans how to install panels, connect produced electricity to the grid and comply with building codes. Likely jobs will be system inspectors, sales reps and installers, according to the administration.

A pilot version of the program at three bases has already graduated students, said Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, deputy secretary of the Department of Energy, which is heading up the initiative.

At Camp Pendleton in California, 20 troops graduated in February and all received job offers in the industry, Sherwood-Randall said. The DOE has struck an agreement with the country’s top-five solar energy companies to interview all graduates.

The 4- to 6-week intensive training course will now be available at Hill and three facilities that hosted the pilot — Pendleton, Fort Carson in Colorado and Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, she said.

It was not decided Friday which other six military facilities might participate, and how many of the 75,000 projected trainees will be veterans, said Dan Utech, deputy special assistant to the president for energy and climate change.

Bases will be chosen to participate based on training opportunities at surrounding community colleges, the strength of the local solar market and interest among troops.

As for the cost, Utech said the Department of Veterans Affairs is still ironing out agreements with states to allow the use of GI Bill benefits to fund the education.

“Those are not currently approved, but we are working to get them approved,” Utech said.

But the administration has designed the training to be free of charge for troops.

The White House’s push to rein in global climate change is driving the Solar Ready Vets program, which it hopes will further reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels. Hill Air Force Base was considered a logical backdrop for the rollout after it unveiled in 2009 what was the largest solar panel farm in Utah.

The military has sought out new and renewable energy sources due in large part to cost — the DOD used $16 billion in liquid fuel in 2012 — and security. For example, Marine Corps Camp H.M. Smith in Hawaii unveiled a demonstration project last summer aimed at producing part of the base’s energy from the sun to keep missions running in the face of natural disasters, cyberattacks or sabotage.

The White House said Fort Detrick in Maryland broke ground this week on a solar project that will power almost 2,500 homes annually. Bases in North Carolina, Georgia, Hawaii and Arizona have also either completed or started similar solar projects.

Energy use is also a major risk downrange where needed convoys of fossils fuels are targeted by enemy snipers and roadside bombs.

tritten.travis@stripes.com

Twitter: @Travis_Tritten

Were 2 dead pilots, plane wreckage part of 'Lost Patrol'?

While hunting near Sebastian in the mid-1960s, Graham Stikelether stumbled upon the wreckage of a warplane with two bodies inside. Stikelether, an Indian River County attorney, notified the Navy, which picked up the plane and the human remains.

Navy authorities initially told him the plane was from Flight 19, the five torpedo bombers that vanished after taking off from Fort Lauderdale in 1945, but later recanted and refused to identify the bodies. Although Stikelether continued trying to find out who the men were, he died before he could find any answers.

That's according to Jon Myhre, who for decades has been trying to crack the Flight 19 mystery — and who firmly believes that wrecked plane was part of the doomed "Lost Patrol" squadron.

But the Navy has yet to identify the two bodies, despite Myhre's repeated pleas over the past two years and a federal Freedom of Information Act request filed in 2013.

"I was told that I'd run into a brick wall dealing with the Navy," said Myhre, a former Army combat helicopter pilot and later an air traffic controller in Palm Beach County. "After trying to identify those men, I believe I have."

A federal employee told Myhre the names of the Sebastian plane victims had been redacted from the Navy's accident report and thus were exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. So last month, Myhre appealed to Adm. Samuel Cox, director of the Naval History and Heritage Command, for help.

After being contacted by the Sun Sentinel, Heritage Command spokesman Paul Taylor said archivists now are trying to find the names of the two crewmen — and will release them if found.

The problem, he said, is the Navy still doesn't have enough information to determine who they were. "There are no relevant records to answer his question," he said. "But we'll continue to work the case."

Flight 19 took off from the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale — today Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport — on Dec. 5, 1945, planning a practice bomb run. A few hours later, the flight leader reported his compasses were malfunctioning and that he was lost.

Many experts believe the planes ran out of fuel and crashed in the Atlantic about 150 miles east of Daytona Beach, killing all 14 crewmembers. Because no trace of the planes was ever found, their disappearance popularized the myth of the Bermuda Triangle.

Myhre thinks one or more of the Flight 19 planes crashed on land — in the vicinity of Sebastian, north of Vero Beach.

The reason: The aircraft carrier USS Solomons, while near Daytona Beach, picked up a radar signal from four to six unidentified aircraft over North Florida about 90 minutes after Flight 19 was due back in Fort Lauderdale.

The carrier observed the planes turn to the southeast before they dropped off radar.

Because of that turn, Myhre calculated that one or more of the single-engine, 8-ton bombers likely crashed in Central Florida.

Myhre initially learned about the two bodies in 1989, after a story about his research into warplanes appeared in Omni, a science magazine.

After reading the article, Stikelether contacted Myhre and told him he found a TBM Avenger torpedo bomber — the same model flown by Flight 19 — and the remains of two crewmembers in a swamp area about eight miles southwest of Sebastian.

Stikelether, who would later become an Indian River County judge, said he attempted to determine the identities of the two men and even called a friend in the Pentagon.

"The friend called back and said, 'just drop it,' " said Doug Westfall, who published Myhre's book, "Discovery of Flight 19."

"So Stikelether was frustrated."

Although the squadron was under the command of the Navy, it included several Marine crewmembers. Myhre thinks the plane found near Sebastian was flown by Marine Capt. Edward Powers, who was accompanied by Sgt. Howell Thompson, the gunner, and Sgt. George Paonessa, the radioman.

When Myhre first inquired about the plane in 1989, the Navy asked for the exact date the aircraft was found, which Stikelether was unable to provide. As a result, the Navy said it couldn't determine the crewmembers' identities. Then Stikelether died in 2009.

Lending support to his theory, Myhre learned that the pilots of an Eastern Air Lines DC-3 spotted a red flare not far from the crash site — a day after the Navy squadron went missing. Myhre thinks the flare might have been fired by a crewmember from the wrecked plane before he either died or went AWOL and disappeared.

It's believed Paonessa was that crewmember and some even theorize he lived anonymously for years after that crash. They include Paonessa's family, who received a Western Union telegram sent from the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville a few days after Flight 19 disappeared, said Minerva Bloom, a docent at the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum.

The telegram said, "I am very much alive," and was signed: "Georgie," according to Bloom, who added that the museum has a copy of that communication.

"The telegram is believed to be a hoax by many. But I am not 100 percent sure because the family believes it is authentic, as only close family members knew his nickname, Georgie," Bloom said.

Myhre said no matter what, he plans to find out the real story. "I'll keep stirring the pot to get answers," he said. "But it's just really frustrating."

kkaye@tribpub.com or 561-243-6530.

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Russia's role in Ukraine seen shifting to training rebels

YENAKIEYEVE, Ukraine — On a recent spring morning, an important visitor watched Russian-backed rebels conduct infantry maneuvers in eastern Ukraine.

"The general is very pleased," rebel commander Ostap Cherny told his troops, referring to the figure in camouflage encircled by guards.

The man — almost certainly a Russian military officer — became alarmed when he saw two journalists approach. His entourage shielded him — forbidding photos — and the group sped off in a motorcade, the "general" safely inside a black Toyota SUV with no license plates.

Nearly a year into the Ukraine conflict, the extent of Moscow's direct involvement has become clear: They may wear camouflage, but the Russians' presence in eastern Ukraine is hardly invisible.

At the same time, there has been a tactical shift apparently aimed at minimizing Russia's military presence, part of an effort to persuade the West to lift economic sanctions.

Visits by The Associated Press to training grounds like those near Yenakieyeve and interviews with dozens of rebels reveal that Russian armed forces spearheaded some of the major separatist offensives, then swiftly withdrew.

More recently, as a shaky cease-fire has taken hold, Russia has kept fewer troops in Ukraine but increased rebel training. NATO and an independent London-based Russian scholar estimate that Russia has several hundred military trainers in eastern Ukraine.

Since hostilities began around mid-April last year, the Ukrainian government and the West have accused Moscow of waging an undeclared war in Ukraine by sending thousands of troops to fight with the separatists and providing weaponry. At least 6,000 people have been killed on both sides.

While the Kremlin acknowledges that many Russians have fought as volunteers, it firmly denies sending troops or arming rebels.

Throughout the conflict and often days before a new flashpoint, AP reporters would see as many as 80 armored vehicles a day, mostly coming from the direction of the Russian border. Their ultimate origin was impossible to establish.

Separatist fighters confirm that clothing and ammunition are among supplies they receive from Russia.

"Yes, our brothers are supplying us — you know who," one fighter who uses the nom de guerre Taicha said at a checkpoint in the town of Krasny Luch. Most rebels won't reveal their full names for fear of retaliation against their families.

When the town of Debaltseve finally fell to the separatists on Feb. 19 after weeks of fighting over the railroad hub, the true victors were long gone.

"Our friends helped us," said Andrei, a fighter who fought in Debaltseve. Unlike his platoon, which had nothing newer than a T-72 tank, he said the Russians had modern T-90s. Like other rebels, Andrei would not give his last name because his family lives in a Ukraine-controlled area.

Alexei, another fighter, became animated when asked about Russians in the battle for Debaltseve: "I'm not going to hide it: Russians were here. They went in and left quickly."

Igor Sutyagin, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, has spent months collecting evidence of the Russian presence in Ukraine, coming up with an exhaustive list of combat formations.

The presence of large numbers of Russian troops has been a "permanent feature of the conflict" since August, Sutyagin said, with the number peaking at about 9,000 troops in late February. His estimate stems from calculations based of sightings of weaponry as well as information that soldiers post on social media.

Sutyagin corroborated rebel descriptions of Russian troops entering Ukraine and leaving promptly after a battle is won. By his calculations, several hundred Russian servicemen are still in Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to numerous calls and faxes seeming comment for this story. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Russia "firmly denies" reports of a Russian military presence in Ukraine.

NATO insists Russian troops continue to operate in eastern Ukraine despite the cease-fire. In recent months, according to Lt.-Col. Jay Janzen at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Russia has transferred more than 1,000 heavy weapons to the separatists.

Gen. Philip Breedlove, commander of NATO forces in Europe, said the alliance's intelligence indicates that trainers from Russia's special forces have been instructing fighters in eastern Ukraine about sophisticated Russian-supplied weaponry. Breedlove estimated 250-300 advisers are supervising the training.

Outside Yenakiyeve, where the man referred to as the "general" observed maneuvers, the lack of formal military training among rebels was obvious.

As armored vehicles opened fire, Cherny, their commander, shouted into a walkie-talkie: "Why did you open fire? I didn't give you an order to open fire!"

Cherny later told the rebels that the "general" was happy: "He said you did fine. But I actually think it was not fine. There's still a lot of work to do."

Associated Press writer John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels contributed to this report.

Marshall Islands will appeal in unprecedented nuclear weapons case against US

UNITED NATIONS — The tiny Pacific nation of the Marshall Islands is persisting with an unprecedented lawsuit demanding that the United States meet its obligations toward getting rid of its nuclear weapons. It filed notice Thursday that it will appeal a federal judge's decision to dismiss the case.

The island group was the site of 67 nuclear tests by the U.S. over a 12-year period after World War II, with lasting health and environmental impacts, including more than 250 people exposed to high amounts of radiation.

The Marshall Islands filed its lawsuit last year, naming President Barack Obama, the departments and secretaries of defense and energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Obama in 2009 called for "a world without nuclear weapons" and said the U.S. would take concrete steps toward that goal, a declaration highlighted by the committee that awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize months later.

The U.S. is a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a landmark agreement to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. The United Nations this month will host the treaty's latest five-year review conference.

But the Marshall Islands claims the U.S. is modernizing its nuclear arsenal instead of negotiating in good faith on disarmament, as the treaty requires. The lawsuit seeks action on disarming, not compensation.

A federal judge in San Francisco last month granted the U.S. government's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the Marshall Islands didn't have standing to bring the case.

"Requiring the court to delve into and then monitor United States policies and decisions with regard to its nuclear programs and arsenal is an untenable request far beyond the purview of the federal courts," the judge's order said. It added that the authority to negotiate with foreign countries falls under the government's executive branch, not the judicial one.

The Marshall Islands says the executive branch is the very one that has neglected its disarmament obligations for years.

"We believe the district court erred in dismissing the case," the lead attorney for the Marshall Islands, Laurie Ashton, said in a statement announcing the appeal in the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "The Marshall Islands, like every party to the NPT, is entitled to the United States' fulfillment of its NPT promise."

The statement also said the nuclear threat is "now magnified by the deteriorating relationship between Russia and the U.S., which between them control over 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons."

The lawsuit is part of an effort the Marshall Islands launched last year to take on all nine of the world's nuclear-armed nations. It filed suit against each in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, estimating that the countries combined would spend $1 trillion on their arsenals over the next decade.

The other countries targeted were Russia, Britain, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea. The last four are not parties to the NPT, but the lawsuits argued they are bound by the treaty's provisions under customary international law.

The Marshall Islands remains engaged in three active cases at the ICJ, against Britain, India and Pakistan. All three have written consent on file for compulsory jurisdiction, Ashton said, meaning they agree to appear before the court if action is taken against them. China said it doesn't have that consent on file, and the other countries said nothing, she said.

The country and its outspoken foreign minister, Tony de Brum, have been helped in their efforts by the California-based Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and the New York-based Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy.

Coast Guard rescues man reported missing at sea more than 2 months ago

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A man whose family reported him missing at sea more than two months ago was found sitting on the overturned hull of his 35-foot sailboat far off the North Carolina coast, the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday.

Coast Guard officials in Portsmouth, Va., said they received word from a German tanker about 1:30 p.m. indicating they spotted a man and his sailboat approximately 200 miles east of Cape Hatteras.

A Coast Guard helicopter crew from North Carolina flew to the ship and were airlifting Louis Jordan to a hospital in Norfolk, Va., said Lt. Krystyn Pecora, a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard's 5th District office. She said Jordan, 37, had a shoulder injury, but she did not have any additional information about his condition.

Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss said Jordan's 35-foot sailboat had lost its mast and capsized. The tanker crew said it found Jordan sitting on the hull.

Doss said it was not known where or how long the boat had been capsized, but said Jordan told them he ate fish he caught to survive.

"We won't really know what happened to him out there until we talk to him," he said.

Jordan had been living on his docked sailboat at the Bucksport Plantation Marina in Conway, S.C., until January, when he told his family he was "going into the open water to sail and do some fishing," said his mother, Norma Davis, of Jacksonville, N.C. The family had not heard from him since, she said.

"We expected him to come back and he did not return," Davis said in a telephone interview. "We knew something happened. To us it's just a miracle. We're just so thrilled that he was found alive."

Davis said Jordan's father, her ex-husband Frank Jordan, spoke to their son after he was recovered by the Coast Guard and that in addition to injuring his shoulder, he was dehydrated.

"It's amazing," she said. "It's been very difficult not knowing anything and I just feel like all of our prayers have come true. They've been answered."

Jordan had spent months sanding and painting his docked 1950s-era, single-masted sailboat in Conway, where marina manager Jeff Weeks said he saw him nearly every day. Jordan was the only resident in a section of about 20 boats docked behind a coded security gate, Weeks said.

"You'll probably never meet a nicer guy," Weeks said. "He is a quiet gentleman that most of the time keeps to himself. He's polite. I would describe him as a gentle giant:" measuring 6-foot-2 and weighing 230 pounds.

Jordan appeared to be knowledgeable about wild fruits and mushrooms and fished for his meal in inland waterways, Weeks said. But his January trip may have been his first time sailing in the open ocean.

"He might sail up and down the Intercoastal Waterway, but he didn't have the experience he needed to go out into the ocean," Weeks said.

Records show that Louis Jordan sailed out of the marina in Conway, on Jan. 23, aboard the sailboat Angel, said Marilyn Fajardo, a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard's 7th District. Fajardo said the Coast Guard in Miami was notified by Frank Jordan on Jan. 29 that he hadn't seen or heard from his son in a week. One week later, Davis confirmed their son was still missing.

Fajardo said alerts were issued from New Jersey to Miami to be on the lookout for Jordan and his sailboat. Officials also searched financial data to determine whether Jordan actually had come ashore without being noticed but found no indication that he had, she said.

A search was begun on Feb. 8, but Fajardo said the Coast Guard abandoned its efforts after 10 days. Despite reports from other sailors claiming to have seen Jordan's sailboat, none of the sightings were confirmed and the case was suspended. The Coast Guard said Jordan didn't file a "float plan," the nautical equivalent of a flight plan, to determine his route or destination, and Fajardo said there wasn't enough information to narrow down his whereabouts.

Davis said she is looking forward to celebrating her son's return.

"We do plan on having a wonderful Easter celebration with family and I can't wait to get him back," she said.

VA to relinquish control over construction of $1.73B Denver hospital

AURORA, Colo. — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will take over construction management at the new Denver veterans hospital amid an internal investigation into how the project ran $1 billion over budget, the Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday.

VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson said he hopes the hospital can open in 2017 and repeated his earlier estimate that another $830 million is needed to finish the work. Gibson spoke with reporters at the construction site in the Denver suburb of Aurora after meeting with contractors.

The hospital is now expected to cost $1.73 billion. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., has said VA officials told Congress as recently as last year that the hospital would cost $630 million and open in May 2015.

Gibson said the design was finalized too late and the contractor wasn't brought into the process early enough. "I apologize to veterans, and I apologize to American taxpayers for the delay and the added cost," he said.

Veterans hospitals in New Orleans, Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla., have also encountered overruns and delays. The VA has been under intensifying pressure from Congress to explain what went wrong and fire those responsible.

The House Committee on Veterans Affairs has scheduled a hearing about the Denver hospital for April 15 in Washington, D.C.

Gibson said he understands lawmakers' frustration that the department's top construction executive, Glenn Haggstrom, retired last week amid the VA's investigation. Coffman and Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, have said Haggstrom should have been fired.

Gibson said Haggstrom had a legal right to retire. He said Haggstrom submitted his retirement documents March 24, one day after he was questioned under oath as part of the internal inquiry.

Haggstrom has no listed phone number and could not be reached for comment.

Gibson dismissed Coffman's proposal to funnel the department's multimillion-dollar employee bonus budget into construction, calling it "a lousy idea." It would mean janitors, cemetery workers and other VA employees, many of them veterans, wouldn't get bonuses, not just executives, he said.

Coffman's spokesman, Tyler Sandberg, said Gibson's reaction was predictable. "Of course. It's his bonus money," Sandberg said.

Sandberg said the VA still hasn't provided specifics about the problems or how it will discipline those responsible. "It sounds like they're fiddling while Rome burns," he said.

Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., said he was encouraged by Gibson's comments. Perlmutter said it will be difficult to persuade Congress to come up with the money, but he is confident it could be done.

Gibson said that by the time he learned of the cost overruns, the contractor had gone to a federal appeals board alleging the VA had breached its contract. Gibson said he thought it best to wait till the board ruled before taking any action.

The board ruled the VA hadn't produced a design that could be built within budget. Work halted until the VA negotiated an interim contract with the builders.

The 184-bed medical center will replace an old, crowded facility in Denver.

Iran nuclear deal: World powers, Iran reach breakthrough accord

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Capping exhausting and contentious talks, Iran and world powers sealed a breakthrough agreement Thursday outlining limits on Iran's nuclear program to keep it from being able to produce atomic weapons. The Islamic Republic was promised an end to years of crippling economic sanctions, but only if negotiators transform the plan into a comprehensive pact.

They will try to do that in the next three months.

The United States and Iran, long-time adversaries who hashed out much of the agreement, each hailed the efforts of their diplomats over days of sleepless nights in Switzerland. Speaking at the White House, President Barack Obama called it a "good deal" that would address concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called it a "win-win outcome."

Those involved have spent 18 months in broader negotiations that were extended twice since an interim accord was reached shortly after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani entered office. That deal itself was the product of more than a year of secret negotiations between the Obama administration and Iran, a country the U.S. still considers the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.

Opponents of the emerging accord, including Israel and Republican leaders in Congress, reacted with skepticism. They criticized the outline for failing to do enough to curb Iran's potential to produce nuclear weapons or to mandate intrusive enough inspections. Obama disagreed.

"This framework would cut off every pathway that Iran could take to develop a nuclear weapon," he declared. "This deal is not based on trust. It's based on unprecedented verification."

If implemented, the understandings reached Thursday would mark the first time in more than a decade of diplomatic efforts that Iran's nuclear efforts would be rolled back.

It commits Tehran to significant cuts in centrifuges, the machines that can spin uranium gas to levels used in nuclear warheads. Of the nearly 20,000 centrifuges Iran now has installed or running at its main enrichment site, the country would be allowed to operate just over 5,000. Much of its enriched stockpiles would be neutralized. A planned reactor would be reconstructed so it produced no weapons-grade plutonium. Monitoring and inspections by the U.N. nuclear agency would be enhanced.

America's negotiating partners in Europe strongly backed the result. President Francois Hollande of France, which had pushed the U.S. for a tougher stance, endorsed the accord while warning that "sanctions lifted can be re-established if the agreement is not applied."

Obama sought to frame the deal as a salve that reduces the chances of the combustible Middle East becoming even more unstable with the introduction of a nuclear-armed Iran. Many fear that would spark an arms race that could spiral out of control in a region rife with sectarian rivalry, terrorist threats and weak or failed states.

Obama said he had spoken with Saudi Arabia's King Salman and that he'd invite him and other Arab leaders to Camp David this spring to discuss security strategy. The Sunni majority Saudis have made veiled threats about creating their own nuclear program to counter Shia-led Iran.

The American leader also spoke by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, perhaps the sharpest critic of the diplomacy with Iran. The White House said Obama told Netanyahu that the agreement "in no way diminishes our concerns with respect to Iran's sponsorship of terrorism and threats towards Israel."

A final agreement "must significantly roll back Iran's nuclear capabilities and stop its terrorism and aggression," Netanyahu said in Israel.

But Obama saved his sharpest words for members of Congress who have threatened to either try to kill the agreement or approve new sanctions against Iran. Appearing in the Rose Garden, Obama said the issues at stake are "bigger than politics."

"These are matters of war and peace," he said, and if Congress kills the agreement "international unity will collapse, and the path to conflict will widen."

Hawks on Capitol Hill reacted slowly to the news from the Swiss city of Lausanne, perhaps because the framework was far more detailed than many diplomats had predicted over a topsy-turvy week of negotiation.

House Speaker John Boehner said it would be "naive to suggest the Iranian regime will not continue to use its nuclear program, and any economic relief, to further destabilize the region."

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said his panel would vote this month on legislation giving Congress the right to vote on a final deal. Freshman Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who penned a letter that many GOP senators signed last month to Iran's leaders, said he would work "to protect America from this very dangerous proposal."

Many of the nuclear limits on Iran would be in place for a decade, while others would last 15 or 20 years. Sanctions related to Iran's nuclear programs would be suspended by the U.S., the United Nations and the European Union after the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Iran's compliance.

In a joint statement, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Iran's Zarif called the agreement a "decisive step." Highlighting Iran's effort to show a new face of its government, Zarif then held a news conference, answering many questions in English, and Obama's statement was carried live and uncensored on Iranian state TV.

Still, all sides spoke with a sense of caution.

"We have taken a major step, but are still some way away from where we want to be," Zarif told reporters, even as he voiced hope that a final agreement might ease suspicion between the U.S. and Iran, which haven't had diplomatic relations since the 1979 overthrow of the shah and the subsequent U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.

Zarif said the agreement would show "our program is exclusively peaceful, has always been and always will remain exclusively peaceful." But he also said it would not hinder the country's pursuit of atomic energy for civilian purposes. "We will continue enriching," he said. "We will continue research and development." He said the heavy water reactor would be "modernized."

Kerry lashed out at critics who have demanded that Iran halt all uranium enrichment and completely close a deeply buried underground facility that may be impervious to an air attack.

"Simply demanding that Iran capitulate makes a nice sound bite, but it is not a policy, it is not a realistic plan," Kerry said.

The final breakthrough came a day after a flurry of overnight sessions between Kerry and Zarif, and meetings involving the six powers at a luxury hotel in Lausanne.

As late as Thursday afternoon, it still appeared an agreement might be beyond reach as the U.S. pushed to spell out concrete commitments and Iran adamantly demanded that only a vague statement be presented. In an apparent compromise, some details were noted in the general statement and others were saved for and a more detailed position paper issued by the White House and State Department.

Some of that tension remained.

"There is no need to spin using 'fact sheets' so early on," Zarif tweeted. He also questioned some of the assertions contained in the document, such as the speed of a U.S. sanctions drawdown.

AP writers Julie Pace and Bradley Klapper contributed to this report from Washington.

UN report: More than 25,000 foreigners fight with terrorists

UNITED NATIONS — The number of fighters leaving home to join al-Qaida and the Islamic State group in Iraq, Syria and other countries has spiked to more than 25,000 from over 100 nations, according to a new U.N. report.

The panel of experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against al-Qaida said in the report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press that its analysis indicates the number of foreign terrorist fighters worldwide increased by 71 percent between mid-2014 and March 2015.

It said the scale of the problem has increased over the past three years and the flow of foreign fighters "is higher than it has ever been historically."

The overall number of foreign terrorist fighters has "risen sharply from a few thousand ... a decade ago to more than 25,000 today," the panel said in the report to the U.N. Security Council.

The report said just two countries have accounted for over 20,000 foreign fighters: Syria and Iraq. They went to fight primarily for the Islamic State group but also the Al-Nusra Front.

Looking ahead, the panel said the thousands of foreign fighters who traveled to Syria and Iraq are living and working in "a veritable 'international finishing school' for extremists," as was the case in Afghanistan in the 1990s.

A military defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq could have the unintended consequence of scattering violent foreign terrorist fighters across the world, the panel said. And while governments are focusing on countering the threat from fighters returning home, the panel said it's possible that some may be traumatized by what they saw and need psychological help, and that others may be recruited by criminal networks.

In addition to Syria and Iraq, the report said Afghan security forces estimated in March that about 6,500 foreign fighters were active in the country. And it said hundreds of foreigners are fighting in Yemen, Libya and Pakistan, around 100 in Somalia, and others in the Sahel countries in northern Africa, and in the Philippines.

The number of countries the fighters come from has also risen dramatically from a small group in the 1990s to over 100 today — more than half the countries in the world — including some that have never had previous links with al-Qaida associated groups, the panel said.

It cited the "high number" of foreign fighters from Tunisia, Morocco, France and Russia, the increase in fighters from the Maldives, Finland and Trinidad and Tobago, and the first fighters from some countries in sub-Saharan Africa which it didn't name.

The panel said the fighters and their networks "pose an immediate and long-term threat" and "an urgent global security problem" that needs to be tackled on many fronts and has no easy solution.

With globalized travel, it said, the chance of a person from any country becoming a victim of a foreign terrorist attack "is growing, particularly with attacks targeting hotels, public spaces and venues."

But the panel noted that a longstanding terrorist goal is "generating public panic" and stressed that the response needs to "be measured, effective and proportionate."

It said the most effective policy is to prevent the radicalization, recruitment and travel of would-be fighters.

The panel noted that less than 10 percent of basic information to identify foreign fighters has been put in global systems and called for greater intelligence sharing. As a positive example, it noted that the "watch list" in Turkey — a key transit point to Syria and Iraq — now includes 12,500 individuals.

US hopes Japan navy will be more active in Pacific

YOKOHAMA, Japan — Even as Japan remains divided over proposed changes in the role it should play in regional security issues, senior U.S. and Japanese military officers say they hope the Japanese navy may soon be freed up to play a more active role in the Pacific and beyond, plying some of the world's most hotly contested waters.

Vice Adm. Robert Thomas, commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, said he expects revisions headed for approval in Japan's parliament will make it easier for the Japanese and U.S. navies to cooperate more smoothly in the Indian and Pacific oceans and in "multilateral exercises across the region."

The proposed guidelines are important to Washington because Japan is the United States' closest and most stalwart ally in Asia. They come as Japan is already shifting its defense priorities from northern reaches near Russia to the East China Sea, where Tokyo and Beijing are locked in a dispute over a chain of uninhabited islands.

Japan is setting up an amphibious unit similar to the U.S. Marines to respond quickly to any invasion of those islands and is also planning to upgrade its air defenses with F-35 stealth fighters and Global Hawk drones.

One of the key strategic goals for Tokyo and Washington is to allow Japan to participate in what is known as collective self-defense, meaning that it would be able to come to the aid of an ally under attack even if that did not entail a direct attack on Japan or its own military.

"They have the capacity and the capability in international waters and international airspace anywhere on the globe. That's the important point," Thomas told reporters Tuesday. "The decisions that are pending with regard to collective self-defense will clearly allow the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces to interact with, frankly, a lot of international partners, not just the US Seventh Fleet, in a more flexible fashion."

China's air force recently held its first exercise in western Pacific Ocean, reportedly conducting drills between Taiwan and the Philippines. According to the Japanese Defense Ministry, Japanese fighters are also on track to set a new high for emergency scrambles against airspace incursions, increasingly by Chinese aircraft.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, wary of the expansion of the Chinese military, has been a major advocate of loosening postwar restrictions on Japan's military. Tokyo and Washington both want Japan to be able to send its troops farther from its shores with fewer restrictions and join in a wider range of activities, from humanitarian operations to exercises in more locations and with a broader range of partners.

"There are areas that we can't now do in a seamless way (with the Seventh Fleet), so we hope that these areas will be improved in the process of formulating the guidelines," Vice Adm. Eiichi Funada, commander of the Japanese fleet, said alongside Thomas at the news conference on the deck of the Blue Ridge.

He said that Japan has been very concerned with the expansion of the Chinese military in recent years. "Their recent exercises were also a matter of attention for us. We are not sure what the exact significance of the exercises was, but as part of the expansion of the Chinese military, it is something that we must watch with caution and continue to collect intelligence on."

Thomas was more cautious.

"The fact that the PLAN — the Chinese navy — and the Chinese air force continue to expand operations in international waters and international airspace is a natural evolution for them," he said. "The Chinese navy and more and more the Chinese air force operate globally as do the Japanese as does the United States, as do many international navies with those kinds of capabilities."

Air Force further tightens rules on tobacco use

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany – The Air Force is once again tightening rules on tobacco use on its installations, further clarifying where airmen can — or rather, won’t be able to — get their nicotine fix.

New guidance, made public this week, bans tobacco use in all indoor workplaces, Air Force Services facilities, and installation recreational facilities, to include athletic fields, running tracks, basketball courts, golf courses, beaches, marinas and parks. The rules also apply to electronic smoking devices, commonly referred to as e-cigarettes or e-cigs.

The old Air Force Instruction on tobacco use, last revised in 2012, also prohibited tobacco use at all installation recreation facilities, but didn’t specify places such as basketball courts and running tracks. The old guidance also allowed smoking at recreation areas at designated smoking areas. No such exception is written into the new policy.

Also now banned is smoking in privately owned vehicles when the vehicle is occupied by a child under 14 years of age.

One airman, taking a smoke break at RAF Mildenhall, England, on Thursday morning, said he was unaware that the regulation on smoking had changed. After hearing some of the new rules, he said they would not affect him, but he seemed disappointed that the Air Force was making it harder to smoke in outdoor locations.

He pointed out that people on a golf course are usually spread out, but he said he realizes that such rules exist usually because of a few incidents.

“I guess you always need these blanket rules,” said the airman, who asked not to be identified.

The new policy, published internally on March 15, also prohibits special events in services’ facilities that promote tobacco use, such as “Cigar Night,” since such events run counter to “Comprehensive Airman Fitness” and “an Air Force culture of health,” Air Force officials said Wednesday in a news release announcing the changes.

The new AFI, which was signed by Lt. Gen. Thomas Travis, the Air Force surgeon general, notes that “tobacco use degrades Air Force readiness, health, and leads to preventable health care costs” and urges commanders and leaders to promote “tobacco-free living.”

The Air Force emphasized in the news release that electronic cigarettes fall under the same restrictions as conventional cigarettes.

“We define e-cigarettes as a tobacco product because that is how they are defined under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act,” Col. John Oh, the chief of health promotion for the Air Force Medical Support Agency, was quoted in the release as saying.

Acknowledging that the long-term safety of e-cigarettes is currently unknown, Oh said the Air Force will consider changes to its policy on the devices based on scientific evidence and in consultation with government subject matter experts.

Stars and Stripes reporter Adam Mathis contributed to this article.

svan.jennifer@stripes.com

One VA doctor's cure for opiate overprescription: diagnose first

NEW YORK — Dr. Heidi Klingbeil has a novel solution to the epidemic of opiate overprescription: Make a diagnosis in the first place.

That seemingly obvious step — along with follow-up treatment focusing more on rehabilitation than narcotics — has been the linchpin of a program that has brought her regional VA health care network to the bottom of a list where last place is coveted. They have the lowest rate of opiate prescriptions of any hospital in the VA health care system.

“If it sounds simple, the truth is, it is very simple,” Klingbeil said.

Her goal is to find a way to best treat patients’ underlying conditions that allows them to retain a high quality of life. Often, that means cutting or reducing opiate intake. Klingbeil rewrote the guidelines for pain management in her New York VA region and as chief of physical medicine and rehabilitation, she implements that policy every day.

Her approach in the VA’s Veterans Integrated Service Network 3, which encompasses the Bronx and Manhattan VAs as well as outlying areas, is particularly striking in light of a scandal at the Tomah VA Medical Center in Wisconsin. The hospital, known as “Candy Land” because its doctors were said to have been wantonly handing out opiates, has been under intense scrutiny after a former Marine died of an overdose there.

Several Tomah officials, including its chief of staff, have been reassigned or placed on leave, and the case has prompted a re-examination of how the VA approaches chronic pain.

VA leadership has nothing but praise for Klingbeil’s program; the department’s national pain management chief Dr. Rollin Gallagher calls it “terrific.” So why isn’t every VA hospital mimicking what Klingbeil has been doing since 2011?

Gallagher said the VA is working on implementing similar programs throughout the system and is taking a more holistic approach to pain management, with an emphasis on alternatives to narcotics when possible.

“Implementing that … around the country is a big challenge,” he said.

The VA says it has reduced the number of patients on opiates by about 90,000 since the end of 2012. But it hasn’t been nearly fast enough for many involved with veterans policy, and the VA is taking a bipartisan lashing.

With VA officials in attendance at a Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs hearing last week , ranking member Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., blasted the department’s efforts to curtail opioid overprescription.

“The problem of overprescription of opioids has been around for a long time. We can’t claim it has snuck up on us or surprised us. That’s one reason for my anger and astonishment that the VA system isn’t better than it is,” he said. “This problem is nationwide and not limited to any one facility.”

Finding alternatives

At the Bronx VA, a bustling urban hospital eight subway stops from Yankee Stadium, Klingbeil said while the result of her department’s strategy has been a sharp reduction in opiate prescriptions, there is no crusade to cut the use of painkillers. Instead, she says, she focuses on improving the patient’s quality of life, and often that means cutting or reducing opiate intake.

“It’s hard to live and function on opiates, and in the end they stop relieving pain, too, or you end up needing more to feel the same pain relief,” Klingbeil said. To be on opiates is “to be trapped in a cycle of poor function and poor pain control.”

When new patients come to the Bronx pain clinic, they get diagnosed. If the cause of their pain is something that requires a medical procedure such as surgery, that is the first step. Klingbeil says many patients come in with years of high-dose opiate intake but no diagnosis of what is causing the pain.

“Many came in with opiates as a primary treatment strategy,” she said. “It was our conclusion that that wasn’t best serving them for improving their life.”

A regular runner, Klingbeil extolls the virtues of exercise and brings that zeal to the treatment of her patients. She says her way takes more work than prescribing painkillers, which may be why it hasn’t taken root.

Klingbeil and Bronx VA officials say taking a different approach to pain has also made it harder to get a prescription for those who sought to sell their prescribed opiates and those who abused the drugs.

Back injuries are one of the most common causes of chronic pain among veterans, so Klingbeil and her colleagues at the Bronx VA instituted a “back school,” an intensive program of four two-hour sessions, where patients learn exercises they can do at home to strengthen muscles in their back and relieve pain.

Patients are often referred to accupuncture, chiropracty and Reiki, a Japanese laying of hands technique to relieve stress. Soon they’ll add swim therapy.

Joe Sylvestri, 67, an Army veteran who suffers from health problems connected to Agent Orange exposure in South Korea, says he could barely walk with a walker when he came to the Bronx VA several years ago. He had struggled with drug addiction and, despite the severe pain he was dealing with, he had to find a solution that didn’t involve narcotics.

So he learned exercises to help him deal with the pain and comes in for regular acupuncture. The pain is not gone, he said, but he walks well with a cane and can play with his grandchildren. Most importantly, for him, he’s stayed away from drugs.

“I’m getting older but I’m getting better,” he said.

For George O’Dell, 66, the pain started in Vietnam, where he lifted 100-pound Howitzer shells. He developed severe neck and back problems, had to get several vertebrae fused and was on heavy doses of narcotics as well as drinking a gallon of wine a week to quell the pain. He came to the Bronx VA desperate to be able to manage his pain while still keeping his senses.

It’s taken a lot of work, he said, but he’s greatly reduced his intake of opiates by learning exercises and plans to start swim therapy soon.

“It’s helped me with my mind big time, because for a while there I just wanted to give up,” he said.

Beyond the VA

The approach at the Bronx VA bucks a trend that goes well beyond the VA health-care system.

“Doctors of my generation were taught not to worry about the addictive potential of opioids if a patient had true pain,” Dr. G. Caleb Alexander, co-director for the Johns Hopkins Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness, told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee last week. “Although well-intentioned, many doctors have unwittingly contributed to soaring opioid use.”

Dr. Mehmet Haznedar, a psychiatrist at Bronx VA who works closely with Klingbeil’s team to help his own patients, said that with the prevalence of psychological disorders that veterans often have on top of physical wounds, it’s especially dangerous to overprescribe narcotics.

“You’re just giving a Band-Aid to a patient who has a gushing wound,” he said.

Two obstacles may be aversion to change — prescribing opiates is the way a lot of doctors have always done it — as well as compassion. When patients arrive in pain, doctors want to stop it, and opiates are often the quickest way, Klingbeil said. It also takes more work to do it her way — from the treatment side and gaining the trust of patients who are used to taking narcotics.

But she says it’s well worth it. She says she doesn’t keep up to date on a lot her patients because many simply don’t have the need to come back to the hospital after they get a comprehensive pain management program.

“The results have been astonishing.”

druzin.heath@stripes.com

Twitter: @Druzin_Stripes