News Roundup: Army vet buys presents for family of criminal who shot and paralyzed him, Navy KIA ID’d 75 years after Pearl Harbor, multiple recruiter sex crimes

(Mostly) commentary-free Roundup this week, kids. See you next week. —BK

You have to be SHITTING me. You are a better man than me, my friend:

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV.com) – A veteran shot and paralyzed after a Cardinals game last year made a moving show of generosity towards the family of the man who shot him.

Chris Sanna was shot during an armed robbery near the Old Cathedral in downtown St. Louis in September, 2015.

Wednesday, Sanna talked about reaching out to the family of the man who shot him, Kilwa Jones.

“We’re supposed to get together, I got them gift cards and stuff for Christmas, we’re just trying to get the trial and stuff out of the way,” Sanna said.

Jones has already been sentenced to 35 years in a federal prison for the armed robbery that left Sanna paralyzed.

“They’re going to have to go visit him in jail, and he probably wishes that night never happened just like I do,” Sanna said.

I know I said no commentary, but I have to tell you this: Sanna had already given the guy his wallet and was walking away when the piece of shit shot him in the back like the cowardly scum he is. One of the rounds damaged his spinal cord, leaving Sanna to face the probability of never walking again. And Sanna wants to hang out with his family? Brother, if you want someone to hang out with, get at me. I’ll hang out with you.

Hopefully “I got them gift cards and stuff” is code for “I’ve arranged for him to be beaten to death in prison.”

Follow me on Twitter as I podcast with pipe-hitters from all service branches:

https://twitter.com/BKactual/status/809907690189324289

Sailor’s remains identified 75 years after Pearl Harbor, will be laid to rest at Arlington:

From my boy Timbo on Facebook: My father received a call yesterday from the U.S. Navy. My great uncle, RM3 Howard W. Bean, has finally been identified after he was killed at Pearl Harbor. They gave my father the option of either returning his remains to Massachusetts or having him buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He asked if they could hold off on that decision, to which they agreed. He promptly called me and asked me what I wanted. No question, full military honors at Arlington.

We WILL beat this awful disease someday: 

A former linebacker at the United States Military Academy died Tuesday after a two-year battle with cancer, according to West-Point.org.

First Lt. Josh Powell graduated from West Point in 2013 and was serving as a platoon leader in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, which is part of the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, a spokesman for the Fort Campbell, Kentucky-based unit said. Powell received his Ranger tab after graduation.

The Kentucky native played for the Black Knights in 2010, when the team won the Armed Forces Bowl. He died three days after the Black Knights beat the Midshipmen at the Army-Navy football game in Baltimore on Saturday.

Powell, 27, and his wife, Fabi, were married in November. He was released from the hospital in order to attend (the game) according to West-Point.org.

Thankfully, it sounds like everyone will be OK:

The U.S. Marine Corps announced Wednesday it would temporarily ground all Japan-based MV-22 Osprey aircraft after a crash Tuesday six miles off the coast of Okinawa.

The Osprey, which can take off like a helicopter and fly like a plane, was conducting a nighttime mid-air refueling operation over the Pacific when the rotor blades struck the refueling line, damaging the aircraft, Lt Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson, the Commanding General of III Marine Expeditionary Force, said at a news conference.

“After the aircraft was unhooking, it was shaking violently,” Nicholson said. “The pilot made a decision to not fly over Okinawan homes and families. He made a conscious decision to try to reach Camp Schwab and land in the shallow water to protect his crew and the people of Okinawa.”

All five crew members aboard were rescued but two remain in the hospital, Nicholson added. He said U.S. Marine Ospreys would return to the skies over Japan once he was “satisfied that we have reviewed our checklists and safety of flight procedures.”

Rest in peace:

Lawrence Manley Colburn, a helicopter gunner in the Vietnam War who helped end the slaughter of hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese villagers by U.S. troops at My Lai, has died. He was 67.

Lisa Colburn, speaking with The Associated Press on Thursday evening, said her husband of 31 years was diagnosed with cancer in late September and died Tuesday.

“It was very quick,” she said by phone from her Canton, Georgia, home near Atlanta. “He was a very peaceful man who had a great desire for there to be a peaceful world.”

She also called him “a compassionate person who was a hero in many people’s eyes.”

Colburn was the last surviving member of a U.S. Army crew that ended the My Lai massacre of March 16, 1968. According to accounts, pilot Hugh Thompson landed the helicopter between unarmed villagers and American troops and ordered Colburn and crew chief Glenn Andreotta to cover him.

Fighter jet badassery:

Recruiters behaving badly, chapter one:

A former Army recruiter from San Antonio has admitted he funneled dozens of assault rifles to operatives of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel last year by organizing other soldiers to help him buy the weapons.

Sgt. Julian Prezas, who is facing a disciplinary discharge from the military, pleaded guilty in two separate cases Monday to a total of five counts of lying on federal firearms forms and attempting to export defense articles to Mexico.

Prezas, 36, acknowledged acquiring 42 guns — 23 of which were seized and forfeited to the government during the investigation. However, a co-defendant who became an informant told agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that Prezas sold him 13 AR-15s, some 50 to 60 AK-47s and a shotgun last year…

…When he was arrested in September 2015, Prezas had 17 guns he was taking to the informant and told agents he figured the firearms were going to Mexico, probably to a “cartel or something,” his plea deal said…

…Prezas’ lawyer, George Dombart, said his client is a decorated veteran who supports the right to bear arms but misunderstood regulations over the sales of guns.

“Sometimes, the line gets blurred on public versus private sales,” Dombart said. “Once he became aware that his conduct was illegal, he accepted responsibility.”

Recruiters behaving badly, chapter two:

HORSEHEADS, N.Y. — Authorities say they’ve charged a U.S. military recruiter based in upstate New York with plotting to have someone killed.

State police announced Monday that they had recently arrested 30-year-old Brandon McPherson of Horseheads in Chemung County and charged him with conspiracy. Troopers say he had conspired with another person to have someone killed.

Police haven’t said who was the alleged target or released other details of the plot.

Troopers say McPherson is on active duty with the Navy and is assigned to the recruiting office located at the Arnot Mall in Horseheads.

Recruiters behaving badly, chapter three:

SUPERIOR COURT — An Army recruiter admitted Tuesday that he sent sexual pictures to an underage female recruit he met at an area high school in late 2015 and early 2016.

Staff Sgt. Michael McCullough III, 30, of Dover, pleaded guilty in state Superior Court in Newton before Judge William J. McGovern to third-degree promoting obscene material and third-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

McCullough admitted that between Nov. 11, 2015, and Feb. 25, 2016, he sent “obscene material” to a female recruit under the age of 18 using the social media platform Snapchat.

He additionally admitted that he did so to “arouse, gratify, and stimulate” himself.

According to a police report following his arrest, McCullough was alleged to have sent a picture of his genitals to the female.

Should he comply with conditions of the program, including random urine monitoring, following the recommendations of a psychosexual evaluation, not using social media and not having any unsupervised visits with minors, the charges against him will be dismissed on Dec. 13, 2019, said McGovern.

Recruiters behaving badly, chapter four:

WASHINGTON – The former Marine Corps commandant’s tough talk against sexual assault is still disrupting military justice, and now is helping call into question the case against a former Georgia-based Marine recruiter convicted of misconduct with four female high school students.

In the latest indirect fallout from the 2012 prosecutorial utterances of now-retired Marine Corps Gen. James Amos, the nation’s highest military appellate court this week agreed to hear a challenge from former Staff Sgt. Nhubu C. Chikaka. A court-martial panel at Parris Island, S.C., convicted Chikaka on multiple charges in 2014 and sentenced him to 12 years, later reduced to 10.

(NOTE: Could not find a single picture of this guy.—BK)

The charges, ranging from abusive sexual contact to indecent language, revolved around Chikaka’s alleged actions while a recruiter in Douglasville, about 100 miles north of Columbus, Ga. The appeal centers on the potential taint of unlawful command influence personified by Amos’ words at a time when lawmakers were decrying an alleged “epidemic of military sexual assault.”….

Let me hop in here for a minute. I don’t think so, Chikaka, you dirty fuck. This wasn’t some simple banter that was misconstrued in a hysterical PC witch-hunt environment. This clown was pumping high school girls full of booze and banging them. Here’s a screenshot from the appeals court decision on exactly what was going on. (You can read the whole thing right here if you’d like.)

“Multiple victims testified that (he) used his position and the same modus operandi to repeatedly engage in similar predatory misconduct,” the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals noted. “This testimony was supported by pictures, a text message and records of hundreds of text messages and phone calls.”

The USS Cole asshole still hasn’t been given the death penalty:

The judge in the USS Cole bombing case delayed plans Thursday to hear from the accused bombing mastermind in a closed hearing to give the Miami Herald and other news organizations an opportunity to challenge the closure, according to three attorneys.

Air Force Col. Vance Spath, the judge, had agreed to hear testimony in closed session from defendant, Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, 51. At issue: The Saudi captive accused of orchestrating the Oct. 12, 2000 bombing wants to spend nights at the war court compound, Camp Justice, rather than commute back and forth to the clandestine Camp 7 prison.

His attorney argues the back and forth is traumatic for the man who was subjected to CIA “enhanced interrogation techniques,” including waterboarding, in the nearly four years before he got to Guantanamo in 2006.

He faces a death-penalty tribunal, whose start date has not yet been set.. Seventeen U.S. sailors died in the al-Qaida attack on the warship off Aden, Yemen on Oct. 12, 2000. Dozens more were wounded.

Turkey is having some problems:

Thirteen Turkish troops were killed and 48 others wounded in a car bomb attack in the central Anatolian province of Kayseri on Saturday morning, the Turkish military reported.

In a statement, the Turkish armed forces said the car bomb went off at 8:45 a.m. and targeted on-leave military personnel from the Kayseri Commando Brigade.

The wounded were rushed to hospitals in the region. The army said civilians also may have been casualties of the “treacherous attack.”…

Turkey is facing renewed conflict with Kurdish rebels in the southeast and has suffered a string of suicide and car bombing attacks this year.

The blast comes a week after a car bomb struck riot police posted outside a soccer stadium in Istanbul following a match. That attack killed 44 people, mostly police officers, and wounded scores. Kurdish militants claimed responsibility for the Istanbul attack.

Thank you, Mr. Neeson, we’ve filled the position:

Are you boys mentally handicapped, or just plain stupid?

Two Navy contractors were arrested and charged Wednesday for allegedly giving false information about two separate hoax bomb threats made to Naval Base San Diego, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Joshua Rice, 26, and Roberto Rubio, 22, were charged in two separate incidents that prompted mass evacuations aboard Navy ships and the nearby pier where they were docked, according to U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy.

The arrests come after a spate of hoaxes at naval facilities in San Diego. In at least the two incidents identified by prosecutors, the hoaxes were allegedly made to get out of work early.

In a separate incident, Roberto Rubio was charged with writing “9-24-16 400 bomb” on a wall aboard USS Cowpens on September 24, according to the indictment.

Rubio then allegedly reported the writing to another contractor, which once again prompted a security response on the San Diego Ship Repair Facility. Work on the ship was stopped until authorities deemed it was safe.

She should be executed:

In the early hours of Jan. 25, 2015, Christina Booth called 911 and reported that her babies wouldn’t stop crying, and they needed medical attention.

Two Olympia police officers arrived at the Booth home and found 6-month-old twin girls lying on the couch crying uncontrollably, bleeding from their necks. One of the officers went upstairs and found a third child, a 2-year-old girl, covered in blood, lying in a bed, court records show.

Booth was arrested and taken to the police station, where she told detectives that she tried to kill the girls so that the house would be quiet for her husband, who was downstairs at the time.

“They will be quiet now,” she said.

Nearly two years later, Booth described that as the worst night of her life. In an emotional Wednesday morning court hearing, testimony from the now 30-year-old, her attorney and her adoptive mother told a story of early trauma and subsequent battles with post-traumatic stress disorder and postpartum depression.

He (husband Thomas Booth) now has custody of the girls, who also spend time with (grandmother) Petersen at her home in Seattle. He said they’re doing well, and that he plans to stay by his wife’s side.

Killer Navy robot boats will kill us all:

Between September 6 and October 3, 2016, the U.S. Navy’s science and technology wing sent four small boats on patrol missions in the lower Chesapeake Bay. The only unusual thing was the fact that the boats were autonomous robots.

These robots are not like drones with humans operating them from a remote trailer in Arizona. The vessels, loaded with cameras and sensors, were more like autonomous individuals within a larger robotic collective. The Office of Naval Research, which put on the demonstration, had not done this before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGsdaqpq-5w

Well, not exactly. In 2014, the ONR sent 13 boats into the James River in Virginia and commanded them to “swarm” around vessels in different scenarios. The boats escorted “friendly” vessels or simulated attacks on potential “enemies.”

But the swarm was also kind of dumb. Where one boat went, the others went too. And at the same time, each boat had to individually determine how it would get there.

Two years later in the Chesapeake, the ONR sent fewer boats, albeit smarter ones that work better as a team

Very cool 3D tour of the original Air Force One:

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP may think $4 billion is too much to spend on a pair of revamped jets to serve as Air Force One, but nothing makes you appreciate modern, if expensive, amenities like a good dive into the past.

The current iteration of the presidential jet, a Boeing 747, offers military spec flight controls and communications, and five-star accommodations including bedrooms, offices, dining room, and medical operating theatre. The next generation will take it all further. But if Trump really prefers a back-to-basics, pared down, plane (LOLOL), he can look to this Boeing 707 for inspiration. Delivered in 1959, the first jet to fly as a dedicated presidential carrier served Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.

The plane is currently on display at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, but you can take a virtual tour through the 3D model above. (If you have Google Cardboard or Samsung Gear VR, there’s a link at the bottom right to view in full 360.)

San Diego Police K-9 mauls naked guy. Seems excessive for someone not hurting anyone: 

Counterpoint: Bet she wishes she had a dog:

STUART — A man accused of wandering naked around a neighbor’s home apparently for at least an hour told investigators he didn’t think of himself as “an exhibitionist,” an arrest affidavit states.

The case of the accused nude dude who didn’t wish to be misconstrued as “an exhibitionist” happened Dec. 4 in Stuart.

A Martin County Sheriff’s investigator went to an address on Southeast Wigeon Court and spoke to a woman who said someone had been ringing her doorbell and knocking on her door at strange hours of the night since before Halloween.

The woman suspected the accused roving naked man to be a neighbor’s son.

A deputy found Vasquez at the neighboring home. He said he walks naked in his home from time to time, but doesn’t consider himself “an exhibitionist.”

Merry Christmas, everyone. @BKactual.