The father of a 101st CAB staff sergeant found with a gunshot wound to the head is filled with questions about his son’s death, but Army CID released few details and about the case and declined to provide a time frame for more answers. David Senft, 27, was found dead in a vehicle on Kandahar Airfield on Nov. 15 in a “non-combat incident.” The father is baffled why his son would commit suicide; he had been treated after previous suicide attempts, but he was just married, was recently promoted and loved his five-year-old son. Senft, a crew member of Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez’s personal helicopter, told his father he was proud the two were involved in the evacuation of a wounded soldier together. [via The Tennessean]
- A Fort Bragg, N.C., soldier who was found unconscious at Womack Army Medical Center on Monday died of unknown causes, according to post officials. Sgt. Reynard T. Husband, a parachute rigger assigned to the 82nd Sustainment Brigade, was found in the hospital shortly before midnight. [via Fayetteville Observer]
- A depressed 78-year-old Navy vet has been accused of threatening to kill the president after he told a nurse at a Veterans Affairs clinic in Spartanburg, S.C., he was thinking about it. But relatives said Michael Stephen Bowden, a former New York City cop and firefighter, hoped making the threats would get the VA, to treat his depression. “He has been struggling with these dark thoughts for eight months, and the VA did nothing,” the son said. “He figured if he went over the top, he would get the help he needed.” The vet told nurses, “Yes, I would like to shoot the President, then myself,” according to a Secret Service affidavit. [via New York Daily News]
- A Colorado man testified in court his wife lied about being divorced from a Fort Carson soldier before she was arrested for bigamy. Tiffini Coughlin, 33, allegedly told the man her 2002 marriage to the soldier, Robert Hodges, was annulled after one day. [via The Colorado Springs Gazette]
- Police in Trinidad say a 38-year-old U.S. Army soldier vacationing on the Caribbean island was killed when gunmen rammed his car from behind in a rough slum and then opened fire. Police believe Sgt. Simeon Roderique was shot in a robbery shortly after dropping a woman off at her home in Laventille, a gang-plagued community just east of Trinidad’s capital. The woman’s brother was also killed. [via Associated Press/Washington Post]
- An Alaska man who was charged with sexually abuse stemming from abuse at Fort Hunter-Liggett, Calif., in the 1990s, allegedly beat the child with a belt to force the minor’s submission, according to the indictment. [via The Californian]
- A 74-year-old Kansas vet accused of robbing a string of Wal-Mart stores across the Midwest said police have the wrong man. The charges are a nightmare for Glenn and Irene Stevens who have spent $70,000 on attorneys. [via Kansas City Star]
- An Arizona judge declared a mistrial in the case against a Phoenix soldier charged with the murder of a firefighter who died in a 2001 supermarket fire. Christopher Benitez, 27, was accused of setting the fire in retaliation after a failed beer run. Benitez was not charged until 2009, while he was a soldier stationed in Iraq. The Army pulled him back to Fort Hood, Texas, and he was extradited to Phoenix. [via the Arizona Republic]
- A 30-year-old Guardsman was charged yesterday with killing his girlfriend and leaving her body on the beach in Brooklyn, N.Y. David Lynch allegedly brutally beat Althea Lewis, 45, and then drowned her on Nov. 23. [via New York Post]
- A California vet accused of molesting five girls over the span of 16 years testified injuries he received serving in the Army during the 1980s would have made it impossible. Four girls testified Jon David Woody, 65, of Pruedale, Calif, molested him, but he testified he had a bad back and knees which would have prevented him from lifting the girls. [via The Californian]
- A Vermont National Guardsman indicted in a plot to rob a bank in Jericho, Vt., was sentenced to time served, plus two years of supervised release. Pfc. Daniel Shinosky, 25, had been in prison for about 15 months after he pleaded guilty in April to possessing a stolen AK-47-style, 7.62 mm Romanian rifle. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped more serious charges. He and an accomplice were arrested as they allegedly plotted escape routes near the bank in January 2009. [via Burlington Free Press]
- Army officials say an instructor and a student have suffered minor injuries in an accident during helicopter flight training at Fort Rucker, Ala. The TH-67 training helicopter was heavily damaged in the mishap during routine training. [via Associated Press/Greenfield Reporter]
- Officials at U.S. embassies and consulates are warning allies and combing through sensitive documents in advance of an expected new release of classified files from the Internet gadfly WikiLeaks. [via Los Angles Times]
- One of five Stryker soldiers accused of killing civilians in Afghanistan is seeking a deal with prosecutors to testify against his co-defendants, according to his attorney. Spc. Adam Winfield would join Spc. Jeremy Morlock, who has provided extensive statements describing misconduct in their platoon, such as alleged murder schemes and rampant drug use at their base. [via the Olympian]
