The Mighty Moms of Walter Reed: Caring for children wounded in war

As Americans give thanks, there is one group of women they especially need to remember over the holidays: the Mighty Moms of Walter Reed. They pick up the pieces when their children return from war.
The stories of ten mothers and their children are featured in a new book, Unbreakable Bonds,The Mighty Moms and Wounded Warriors of Walter Reed.
Some of these mothers have spent up to four years living with their child at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland while they recover from multiple amputations and traumatic brain injuries.
The stories they tell of the challenges they face as caregivers to our nation's wounded warriors are searing, inspiring and uplifting. Fox News interviewed half a dozen of these mothers to learn what they’ve been through and the "band of mothers" that they have formed as a result.
Stacy Fidler's son Mark stepped on a mine while wearing a belt of grenades in Afghanistan. He and his mom have been at Walter Reed since October 2011.
Fidler said she finds support in the group of mothers. “We share the good things and the bad things,” she said. “We clap when they take their first steps and get sad when they get sent back to the ICU.”
Fidler, like many of the mothers, spends almost all her time at the hospital caring for her son. “Eventually you just end up living in a hospital room. It's your home. You end up moving in, sleeping there, eating there, everything with your kid.”
One theme common among the Mighty Moms is that almost all of them had to leave their jobs and dedicate themselves to caretaking full time.
“Eventually I did lose my job in the end,” said Lynn Braden-Reed.“It's been hard. I have a 10-year-old daughter and five other children.”
Her son, Christian, described in the book as a “strapping U.S. Marine,” stepped on a pressure-plated improvised explosive device in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in December 2011. The blast, Braden-Reed said, “blew him up in the air, and blew one half of his body off with it.”
Christian has since returned to his home in Tennessee and has begun a nonprofit called Gunslinger Outfitters, which takes other wounded vets on guided hunting and fishing trips.
Julie Keys and her son Adam are the longest residents at Walter Reed, staying in Building 62, where the most severely injured rehabilitate.
Adam was injured in July, 2010 when his unit was hit by a roadside bomb, killing his best friend and three others. “Adam was the sole survivor of that blast,” Keys said. Lost were fellow soldiers Sgt. Chase Stanley, Spc. Matthew Johnston, Sgt. Zachary Fisher and Spc. Jesse Reed.
Although Adam had all his limbs after the blast, doctors had to amputate three of them after he suffered a severe infection. In all, he had to endure 140 surgeries.
“He's a fighter and he's my personal miracle,” Keys said. The other moms helped her though. “I thought, I can do this.
“Six months, a year. I've now been there four years and four months.” And when she wasn’t with Adam, she was with the Mighty Moms. “We've sat out front and had the best of times laughing and carrying on and then some nights, we're out there and we're all crying.”
Tammy Karcher’s son, Jeffrey Shonk, was shot by his roommate, an attack that proved as confusing and upsetting as it was physically debilitating. The surgery, Karcher said, was intense.
“They removed his skull - the left side of his skull at 6:05 in the morning, the same time he was born,” Karcher tearfully explained.
“They told me he may never walk or talk again. And he's walking and talking and he can drive. I have a grandson that I never thought I'd have.”
Karcher also had to resign from her job -- as did Lyn Braden Reed, Valence Scott, Carolee Ryan and Soibhan Fuller-McConnell.
Ryan’s son, Thomas McRae, lost both his legs above the knee and his left arm. He also suffered brain trauma and was blinded in one eye.
His gradual recovery is one of the more inspirational stories to come out of Walter Reed.McRae was described in the book as “poised, confident, self-deprecating and often funny.”
Ryan was faced with caring not just for Tom, but also for his young daughter, Aidan, who was essentially raised at Walter Reed. “It has brought me and Tom closer together. I feel like we have a second chance. It's brought our family very close,” she said.
Valence Scott had to care for her son after he suffered a devastating traumatic brain injury. He would soon get divorced, leaving his mother as his sole caretaker. Authors Dava Guerin and Kevin Ferris summed up Scott’s dedication to her son this way:
“Even under normal circumstances, moms take care of their young like fierce lionesses. But, when those children are catastrophically injured during war, there is no stopping their roaring maternal instincts.”
The most difficult story of the Mighty Moms is that of Siobhan Fuller-McConnell and her son Derek McConnell. Derek stepped on an IED in while on patrol in Afghanistan. After recovering from horrific wounds, the loss of two legs, and infections, he died suddenly from medical complications from his treatment after being released from Walter Reed.
He had planned to marry his fiancé, Krystina, after they won a contest to have their wedding paid for by a New Jersey jeweler.
Fuller-McConnell described his recovery period: “We would sit in his room and sing… and tell him that we weren't going to stop singing until he opened his eyes and looked at us. And he finally opened his eyes and looked right at us and gave us a little smile. He was strong, he was doing really, really good until March 18, 2013.”
Before Derek died, he recorded a YouTube message for his mom after he moved from his bed to his wheelchair for the first time.
“My mother hasn't seen the video yet, so you guys are going to get a sneak-peak before she even sees it. I still love her so much and I'm so thankful for everything she's done,” he said in the video.
Every mother has a story to tell.
Paulette Mason got a call at 10:30 one night from an Air Force base in Afghanistan informing her that her daughter had been in a serious car accident. Staff Sergeant Stefanie Mason suffered a traumatic brain injury when her up-armor SUV lost control and her head crashed into the bullet-proof windshield. She also suffered a badly broken leg, a broken jaw and a degenerated disc in her back.
“All I can remember is Stephanie saying, Mom I need you, and that was, I was helpless. She was 8,000 miles away,” Mason said, adding her heart was broken.
Mason moved into Walter Reed with her daughter during her recovery and became a fierce advocate for her daughter and others recovering there. She is described in the book as someone who encouraged others to speak up when they thought something needed to be said to the medical staff.
“I don’t think some of the military was that used to working with strong women, women who were mothers,” Mason is quoted as saying. “Because we would ask questions.Instead of saying, ‘Yes,’ we’d ask, ‘Why? How come? What are you doing?’ And they didn’t like that, so they had trouble with us.”
Stephanie has recovered well. Despite the original diagnosis that she may never run again, she has since run the Army Ten-Miler, logging a time just 20 seconds slower than the day she ran it before suffering her injuries. Her mother played a huge role in her recovery.
Mason said she wants to organize a group for Silver Star mothers -- mothers of the wounded -- so they can be coached on how to overcome the challenges ahead and take advantage of the nonprofit assistance that’s available.
As Fidler put it, these women in the book are not the only Mighty Moms to be thinking about. “It's not just about us ten moms. It's about all the moms who are going through what we went through.There's hundreds of Mighty Moms out there.”

Why did this teacher's union ban Coca-Cola?

American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers unions in the United States, passed a resolution last week to ban Coca-Cola from its facilities and events.
The teachers union stated its decision was based on human rights violations, which have been detailed in three books published several years ago.
The questions remain: why now and why is this important to a teachers union?
Because AFT is a labor organization, it will stand in solidarity with other labor organizations that have taken a stance against Coca-Cola, AFT spokesman Michael Heenan told Watchdog.org.
Coca-Cola responded to AFT’s claims in an email to Watchdog.org, saying they were based on “outdated and erroneous allegations that we have repeatedly addressed.”
This may be more about the union resenting the beverage companies’ practice of subcontracting instead of hiring permanent employees, which is cited in the AFT resolution, said Larry Sand, president of the California Teachers Empowerment Network.
“Obviously they (Coca-Cola) were not using unionized workers,” Sand said.
This was probably to avoid having to deal with the costs associated with unionized employees, he added.
Sand is skeptical of the unions’ ability to ban all Coca-Cola products.
“Look at what else Coca-Cola makes: Minute Maid, Nestea,” he said. “They’re going to have to go after all these products.”
When asked about the subcontracting issue in the resolution, AFT communications representatives said they would get back to Watchdog.org, but did not do so before deadline.
Banning products or boycotting stores isn’t outside of the unions’ mode of operation. Earlier this year, AFT decided to boycott Staples, the office supply store chain, because it started selling stamps.
The union claimed Staples selling postage would jeopardize 80,000 postal workers’ jobs.

US flies roughly 85 percent of airstrikes against Islamic State, in complex mix of tactics, politics

The United States is conducting roughly 85 percent of the multi-national air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, according to the most recent Pentagon report.  
U.S. fighter planes and drones have conducted 819 strikes, compared to 157 from the 10 other countries, states the detailed report obtained last week by FoxNews.com.
The U.S. began the strikes in Iraq on Aug. 8 and was joined roughly five weeks later by Australia, followed by France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. They joined as part of President Obama’s plan to have international support in the effort to stop the militant group’s foray into western Iraq and eastern Syria. Canada was the last to join, on Oct. 7, and the last to launch a strike.
France on Sept. 17 became the first Western county other than the U.S. to launch an air strike, destroying an Islamic State depot.
The U.S. ordered the strikes in Syria on Sept. 23, about 72 hours after five Arab nations -- Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates -- agreed to participate.
The five other countries flying attacks in Iraq have committed at least 30 fighter jets and four support aircraft. Their missions have destroyed Islamic State military equipment such as vehicles and depots. And at least one mission last month targeted a captured oil refinery, a top Australian military official said.
Still, U.S. military officials have release few specifics about the missions including information about the accuracy of the strikes, which has been questioned.
U.S. Central Command did not respond this week to several requests for information about strike accuracy and why the U.S. flies the vast majority of the sorties.
And David Johnson, vice admiral of the Royal Australian Air Force, recently told The Guardian that he wouldn’t discuss enemy casualties or target locations for fear of Islamic State’s “aggressive propaganda campaign.
However, one clear challenge is that pilots -- out of concern for killing civilians -- have only a limited number of targets and reportedly can attack only at night.
Another is that Islamic State, a combination country and army, presents an elusive and unconventional target.
Dakota Wood, a defense expert at the Heritage Foundation and retired Marine Corps special operations officer, said Monday that the decisions about which countries will fly which missions or how many mission involves several logistical and political factors.
“You have to find the right pilot to execute a mission in a given tactical environment, which includes fuel time, moving targets and anti-air defenses,” he said. “This takes a certain amount of skill.”
Wood also said the other countries could have joined in the effort under limited rules of engagement, like Germany did in the war in Afghanistan. He said, for example, that the Arab nations might not be willing to attack vehicles because such a strike would kill a lot of fighters.
Another possibility is that Central Command could be marshaling the majority of sorties to U.S. pilots, Wood said.
Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is among those expressing concern about the challenges of zeroing in on ISIL or ISIS, as Islamic State is also know.
“We need more targeting capability,” he recently told The New York Times.
That the combined 10 other countries have flown fewer attack missions is perhaps no surprise consider the U.S. essentially has the world’s biggest, most powerful military -- including roughly 4,800 attack and fighter planes among more than 13,600 aircraft.
That’s compared to the Royal Bahraini Air Force, which reportedly has less than 50 planes capable of dropping bombs on strategic enemy targets.
A Central Command report Wednesday said pilots conducted 17 more strikes, which bring the total to rough 1,000. But officials did not provide a breakdown on which countries flew the missions.

Media, Obama, Sharpton, Cartoon

California water wars: Man vs. fish (and the fish are winning)

“If You Give A Mouse a Cookie”… well, you know what happens.  Chaos.  
It reminds me of what happens when you give a little power to a federal agency.  It’ll run amuck and do its best to ruin lives and livelihoods.      
Take the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which was given a little power under the Endangered Species Act.  It decided a three-inch translucent fish called the Delta smelt needed protecting.  So the agency went about inflicting economic and agricultural disaster by shutting off the water valves to some 25 million Californians. 

The Endangered Species Act does not give the government unfettered power to protect species, whatever the cost.  The human and economic impact on society must be always be weighed.  But the feds seem to have glossed over that part.

Some of the most fertile farmland in the world began to dry up.  The nation’s bread basket, the San Joaquin Valley, evolved into a veritable “dust bowl” evocative of John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”.  Thousands of jobs were lost, and billions in agricultural revenue vanished.  Food prices rose.  Thirsty residents of central and southern California were deprived of their main drinking and household water source.  The prospect of water rationing is now quite real.   
Where did all the water go?  This is the truly stupefying part of the story. It was diverted away from the people who need it, and emptied into the Pacific Ocean. Call me crazy, but wasting a precious resource like fresh water is not only irrational, it’s insane. Which, I realize, is endemic in government.    
There is plenty of water for both people and crops, mind you. Over the decades, the state has constructed an elaborate and ingenious complex of dams, reservoirs, canals and aqueducts.Water flows from the mountains into a vast delta controlled by dykes and levees.  From there, the water is both stored and distributed.  Two-thirds of Californians get their water from this source.  Moreover, water spinning turbines provide abundant electricity for the state.  It is a system that has worked superbly since the early 1900’s.   
Enter environmentalists and government regulators –a dangerous combination, to be sure.  Armed with dubious evidence, they determined that the pumping stations which push the water were harming the smelt population.  Forget that the pumps have been running for more than half a century and the tiny minnows are still around.  Forget that shutting down the pumps spells economic and human catastrophe for tens of millions of people who subsist on this water.  The Fish and Wildlife Service forced the water supply to be cut off.   
During a trip to California recently, I was able to see for myself some of the devastated farmland.  What were once rich fields of fruit, vegetables, grain and other agriculture products is now dry, fallowed land.  The hardship on the affected communities has depressed the state’s economy.  
People are starving for water.  The same water which is being dumped recklessly into the sea.  Think of parched people stranded on a boat while the captain jettisons potable water overboard.  Mutiny?  You bet.          
But wait, President Obama to the rescue.  During a visit to California he pronounced a bold and novel solution.  A government bailout.  Naturally.  
He wants to throw around $ 160 million dollars of taxpayer money to help out thirsty residents.  That, of course, is his solution for everything.  Toss money at a problem.  No real plan.  No long-term strategy.  Just give money to farmers who can’t farm their withered land.  
“It’s a Band-Aid solution –a sop to deflect attention from the real issues”, lawyer Damian Schiff of the Pacific Legal Foundation told me.  As counsel for farmers, he has filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to intervene. 
I grew up in California. It is an arid climate. Droughts are common and cyclical. But residents survived and flourished thanks to the brilliant water systems devised over the course of a century.  That is, until environmentalists started whining about the smelt.  Their lawsuits, together with the actions of the Fish and Wildlife Service, have given a tiny bait fish supremacy over humans.  It’s man versus fish.  And the fish are winning.   
Those who blame man-made global warming for California’s current water woes are beyond naïve.  It’s a man-made calamity, all right, caused by the men and women at a federal agency who seem to care more about minnows than the health and welfare of the people they serve.  They have also conveniently misread or misinterpreted the law.                    
The Endangered Species Act does not give the government unfettered power to protect species, whatever the cost.  The human and economic impact on society must be always be weighed.  But the feds seem to have glossed over that part.
Congress specifically wrote such a protection into the law so as to avoid the kind of disastrous consequences Californians are now experiencing.  Congress knew that if you give a federal agency vast power, with no constraints, it would pursue its agenda zealously and unintelligently.   
 “If You Give A Moose a Muffin”… well, you know.

Ferguson protests continue leading to mall closures, arrests

Protesters forced three large malls in St. Louis to close their doors on one of the busiest shopping days of the year Friday, as other protests were held nationwide to protest a grand jury's recent decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed teenager Michael Brown.
The protests were organized on Twitter and other social media platforms using the hashtags #NotOneDime, #Blacklivesmatter and #Stlblackfriday, MyFox2Now.com reported.
Several stores lowered their security doors or locked entrances as at least 200 protesters sprawled onto the floor while chanting, "Stop shopping and join the movement," at the Galleria mall in Richmond Heights a few miles south of Ferguson, Missouri, where Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot Brown, who was unarmed, in August.
The action prompted authorities to close the mall for about an hour Friday afternoon, while a similar protest of about 50 people had the same effect at West County Mall in nearby Des Peres. It didn't appear that any arrests were made. Later Friday, the appearance of several dozen demonstrators led to the early closing of the Chesterfield Mall.
Small business owners told MyFox2Now.com that the protests were hurting them financially on a day they count on to make money.
Cell phone case salesman Abdullah Noman held out as long as he could, telling MyFox2Now.com, “Basically we’re losing a lot of business...I think we’re going to leave in a minute if we stay like that.”
Protests continued in Ferguson during the night leading to the arrests of 15 people for disturbing the peace and impeding flow of traffic. Two others were arrested with resisting arrest and the other with assault.
This stemmed after group of 100 protests marched down West Florissant Avenue in front of Ferguson’s police and fire departments.
The demonstrators began to chant, block traffic and stopping in front of businesses.
"I served my country. I spent four years in the Army, and I feel like that's not what I served my country for," said Ebonie Tyse, 26, of St. Louis as National Guard trucks and police cruisers roamed the street in front of her. "I served my country for justice for everyone. Not because of what color, what age, what gender or anything," she said
The protests, along with demonstrations in Chicago, New York, Seattle and northern California -- where protesters chained themselves to trains -- were among the largest in the country on Black Friday.
"We want to really let the world know that it is no longer business as usual," Chenjerai Kumanyika, an assistant professor at Clemson University in South Carolina, said at a rally at a Wal-Mart in Manchester, another St. Louis suburb.
Monday night's announcement that Wilson, who is white, wouldn't be indicted for fatally shooting Brown, who was black, prompted violent protests that resulted in about a dozen buildings and some cars being burned. Dozens of people were arrested.
The rallies have been ongoing but have grown more peaceful this week, as protesters turn their attention to disrupting commerce.
Mindy Elledge, who runs a watch kiosk at the Galleria, said it was working.
"I think people are afraid to come here," Elledge said. "With the protests going on, you never know when or where they're going to happen."
In northern California, more than a dozen people were arrested after about 125 protesters wearing T-shirts that read "Black Lives Matter" interrupted train service from Oakland to San Francisco, with some chaining themselves to trains. Dozens of people in Seattle blocked streets, and police said some protesters also apparently chained doors shut at the nearby Pacific Place shopping center.
In Chicago, about 200 people gathered near the city's popular Magnificent Mile shopping district, where Kristiana Colon, 28, called Friday "a day of awareness and engagement." She's a member of the Let Us Breathe Collective, which has been taking supplies such as gas masks to protesters in Ferguson.
"We want them to think twice before spending that dollar today," she said of shoppers. "As long as black lives are put second to materialism, there will be no peace."
Malcolm London, a leader in the Black Youth Project 100, which has been organizing Chicago protests, said the group was also trying to rally support for other issues, such as more transparency from Chicago police.
"We are not indicting a man. We are indicting a system," London told the crowd.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Pentagon prepares for more detainee releases from Guantanamo Bay

The Pentagon is preparing to transfer more detainees from Guantanamo Bay in coming weeks despite continued Republican opposition, according to defense and congressional officials.
The Wall Street Journal reports that, after five detainees were transferred last week, there will be another round in December, but defense officials refused to disclose further information on their numbers or nationalities.
Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, complained at a recent hearing of an increase in notifications by the administration to lawmakers on coming transfers from the detainment facility.
President Obama promised since before he took office that he would close the controversial detention center, a move that has been opposed by many Republicans.
The transfers come shortly after the announcement of the resignation of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who was criticized by administration officials who spoke to The Wall Street Journal for moving too slowly to certify detainees for release.
Senior officials at the White House are impatient as the president’s term in office draws nearer to its end with the promise of the closure of Guantanamo unfulfilled, according to the Wall Street Journal.
House and Senate negotiators are debating whether to revise the rules governing transfers as a part of this year’s defense authorization bill, which sets Pentagon policy. The House version of the measure has proposed much stricter restrictions on transfers.
The House proposed its restrictions in the wake of the Obama administration’s decision to move five Taliban detainees out of the camp as part of the deal to secure the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held in Pakistan by a militant group.

Egyptian court dismisses charges against Hosni Mubarak

CAIRO –  An Egyptian court on Saturday dismissed murder charges against former President Hosni Mubarak in connection with the killing of hundreds of protesters in the 2011 uprising that ended his nearly three-decade rule, citing the "inadmissibility" of the case due to a technicality.
The ruling marks another major setback for the young activists who spearheaded the Arab Spring-inspired uprising nearly four years ago -- many of whom are now in jail or have withdrawn from politics. It will likely reinforce the perception that Mubarak's autocratic state remains in place, albeit led by a new president, former military chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
Saturday's verdict concludes Mubarak's retrial along with his two sons, his security chief and six top security commanders, who were all acquitted. Also acquitted was wealthy businessman Hussein Salem, a longtime Mubarak friend tried in absentia.
Mubarak, 86, was also acquitted of corruption charges that he faced along with his sons Alaa and Gamal -- his one-time heir apparent -- over a statute of limitations. The case involves their purchase from Salem of luxury villas in a Red Sea resort at a vastly discounted price, something that the prosecution had said amounted to bribery. The two sons face a separate trial on charges of insider trading.
All rulings can be appealed.
It was not immediately clear whether Mubarak would now walk free since he is serving a three-year jail term for corruption charges he was convicted of in May. He has been in detention since April 2011, but it is unclear if the past 3 1/2 years will be considered as time served.
"There is no justice for the poor," said Ramadan Ahmed, whose son Mohammed was shot dead in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria during the uprising. "This is Mubarak's law!"
Nearly 900 protesters were killed in the 18-day uprising that ended when Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11, handing over power to the military. The trial, however, was concerned only with the killing of 239 protesters, whose names were cited in the charges sheet.
The early days of the protests were marked by fierce street battles between the demonstrators and both police and government supporters. Vehicles plowed into crowds, and bricks and stones were hurled from the rooftops of buildings onto demonstrators gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square. At one point, men on camels and horses galloped into the square and beat protesters with batons and whips.
Nearly 170 police officers and security officials put on trial in connection to the killings since 2011 have either been acquitted for lack of evidence or because they were found to have acted in self-defense. Some received short, suspended sentences.
Mubarak was greeted by jubilant well-wishers when he was helicoptered back from court to the Nile-side military hospital where he has been staying. A television interviewer reached him by telephone and asked whether he had ordered the killing of protesters.
"I did not do anything at all," Mubarak replied.
Mubarak was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2012 on charges related to the killing of protesters, but the verdict was overturned on appeal the following year.
He has spent virtually all the time since he was detained in hospitals due to poor health. On Saturday, he was brought to the defendants' cage on a gurney. He wore dark glasses, a navy blue tie and a matching cardigan.
Presiding judge Mahmoud al-Rashidi said the dismissal of the charges did not absolve Mubarak of the corruption and "feebleness" of the latter years of his 29-year rule and praised the 2011 uprising, saying that its goals -- freedom, bread and social justice -- were legitimate.
Al-Rashidi said Mubarak, like any other human, erred at times and suggested that his old age should have spared him a criminal trial. He also cited Mubarak's long years in public service and what he called the enshrinement of "constitutional legitimacy" following the ouster of Mubarak's successor, the Islamist Mohammed Morsi.
Mubarak was a career military pilot who led the air force during Egypt's last war against Israel in 1973. He was made vice president in the mid-1970s and assumed the highest office in 1981 following the assassination of Anwar Sadat.
"To rule for or against him after he has become old will be left to history and the Judge of Judges, the Righteous and the Justice (God) who will question him about his rule," said the judge.
The reaction to the verdicts was muted, after the judge threatened to jail anyone attending Saturday's 45-minute hearing if they interrupted the proceedings. After the trial was adjourned the courtroom broke into cheers and applause.
Morsi, the Islamist who succeeded Mubarak, is also detained and faces a slew of charges, including some related to the killing of protesters, which could see him sentenced to death. He was elected in Egypt's first democratic presidential election in 2012 but was overthrown by el-Sissi a year later amid massive protests calling for his resignation.
Since then the government has launched a sweeping crackdown on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group and other supporters, killing hundreds and jailing thousands. It has also jailed scores of secular activists, including some of the leaders of the 2011 uprising, for violating a draconian law regulating street protests that was adopted a year ago.