“Miracle” star Michael Mantenuto became a hero off-screen as a Green Beret in the U.S. Army.
During his final year in the military, he reportedly fought ISIS in Iraq and Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve and “something happened over there” that led him to commit suicide, his father told TMZ.
The 35-year-old, who portrayed Jack O’Callahan in the flick, committed suicide by a gunshot to the head on Monday, the Kings County Medical Examiner’s Office in Washington confirmed to the Daily News.
Mantenuto was a communications sergeant with the 1st Special Forces Group, the Green Berets and earned the Achievement Medal and Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, according to TMZ.
Col. Guillaume “Will” Beaurpere, the commander for Mantenuto’s 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), shared the news of his death on Facebook Wednesday morning.
“Those of you that knew Mike will remember him for his passionate love for his family and his commitment to the health of the force,” Beaurpere said in a statement.
We have all seen the grim statistics throughout the years, and it isn’t clear what, if anything, can be done to help. The veteran suicide crisis is one that touches almost everyone in the veteran community, and the worst part of it is that even those among us who seemingly have their shit together can be at risk of taking their own lives.
Consider Michael Mantenuto: From the outside, he seemed to have everything that anyone could want. He was an accomplished athlete at the collegiate level, playing hockey for the University of Maine. He had some movie-star fame from his role in Disney’s 2004 movie, “Miracle.” After that, in a desire to serve his country, he enlists in the U.S. Army, joining the elite Special Forces. He had a wife and two young children, sisters, and a father. It appeared that that the guy was living the American dream.
And yet, none of that stopped him from taking his own life in a car, putting a handgun to his head and squeezing the trigger. His father is saying that it had something to do with his deployments overseas, but, absent a note found somewhere explaining anything, we can never know. What we do know is that depression and anxiety overwhelms far too many veterans, and we haven’t figured out why. If it is this bad for someone as accomplished as Mantenuto, one can only imagine how bad it is for those veterans who haven’t had that kind of success, both inside and outside the service.
This story is a timely reminder that we all need to try to help those in our community who are struggling. Take the time out of the day to call up old friends to see how they’re doing. Even those who seem squared away from the outside sometimes have those dark thoughts that come into the brain. You could possible save someone from doing something really goddamn tragic like killing themselves just by lending a sympathetic ear for a little while. Sometimes, that’s all it really takes.
All four training battalions at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island have been investigated for hazing during the past three years, according to documents obtained through an open-records request by The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette.
Since Jan. 1, 2014, there have been 24 hazing investigations at the depot, half of which were substantiated, according to depot officials, though they didn’t identify them.
The newspapers have, so far, been provided with heavily redacted copies of 15 inquiries totaling more than 1,000 pages. They detail allegations of drill instructor-to-recruit misconduct ranging from name-calling to serious physical assaults.
Three centered on 4thBattalion:
▪ One investigation tells of a drill instructor who ordered 49 recruits to put white masking tape over their mouths for talking too much during “free time.” An officer doing rounds in the barracks discovered the incident and reported it.
▪ The same inquiry found multiple recruits who said they were denied the opportunity to use the bathroom for extended periods of time.
Five centered on 3rd Battalion:
▪ Investigations of this unit documented the most physical forms of alleged misconduct. Recruits reported they were punched, choked, kicked and slammed into hard surfaces by drill instructors for various reasons. One recruit alleged he was taken into a storage closet, where he was slapped, punched in the face, thrown to the ground, punched in the ribs and stomped on his face “multiple times.” Another recruit reported he was “head-butted.” A separate, more lengthy investigative file listed 36 unnamed drill instructors and assault and obstruction allegations, including claims of slapping, punching and kicking recruits.
▪ One recruit said a drill instructor vomited on him.
▪ Two recruits alleged a Marine tried to bribe them with “extra cookies and peanut butter from the chow hall” after he made a “forceful correction” to a recruit not holding his rifle properly.
In one of the most dramatic operational scenarios possible, seven elite New York Air National Guard pararescue operators have executed a daring nighttime, open ocean parachute jump to board a burning ship at sea and rescue its crew.
The drama unfolded 1,200 miles off the east coast of the United States in the central Atlantic Ocean. At approximately 0700 hours local on Monday morning an explosion and fire ripped through the bulk cargo-carrying vessel Tamar. The Captain issued a distress call immediately. The vessel was too far out to sea for Coast Guard assets to effect rescue so the mission was handed over to the New York Air National Guard’s 106th Rescue Wing with the Canadian and Portuguese coast guards each providing support to the rescue.
(Video by Captain Michael O’Hagan)
The New York Air National Guard launched a four-engine turboprop HC-130 Hercules long-range search and rescue aircraft from the 102nd Rescue Squadron. The specially modified aircraft was carrying eight aircrew plus the Pararescue team and support personnel from the 106th Rescue Wing, based at Gabreski Air National Guard Base in Westhampton Beach, New York.
After the long flight to the objective over the open Atlantic the Pararescue team deployed a rigid inflatable boat by parachute to the ocean surface. The rescue team then parachuted into the sea around sunset. Pararescuemen swam to their rigid inflatable boat and immediately sailed to the nearby Tamar for boarding.
CAMP SHORAB, Afghanistan — Before the American flag was lowered, folded and retired and the last of the Marines left the Afghan province of Helmand in 2014, their commander offered some optimistic parting words.
The commander, Brig. Gen. Daniel D. Yoo, said the Marines had done their job, one of the largest undertakings in the force’s history. At the peak of the war in southern Afghanistan, more than 20,000 Marines flooded the Taliban stronghold, pushing the insurgents out of several districts in Helmand. In their place, the Marines helped Afghan forces establish the combination of security and essential services that became known as a “government in a box.”
Afghan forces would now be responsible for security in Helmand, General Yoo said, “and I am confident in their abilities to continue to succeed.”
It did not quite turn out that way.
Since 2014, resurgent Taliban militants have gained territory, and the Afghan security forces have lost men at such high rates that entire units have needed to be replenished. The local “government in a box” arrangements have mostly crumbled.
So on Saturday, the Marines returned to Helmand with a force of 300; roughly half of them had previously served in the province. The same flag that was lowered in 2014 and then stored at the Pentagon office of the commandant of the Marine Corps was raised again at the 6,500-acre Camp Shorab, which the Marines will be sharing with the Afghan Army’s struggling 215th Maiwand Corps.
Israel has refused a US request to extradite an Israeli-American teenager suspected of making hundreds of bomb threat calls to American Jewish institutions over the last several months, a report said Sunday.
According to Channel 2, Israel intends to hand down a severe indictment of its own on Monday against the hacker from Ashkelon, and therefore denied the US Department of Justice request to extradite the teen.
The 18-year-old is expected to be charged with crimes involving extortion with menaces, causing panic and money laundering.
On Friday, he was charged in the US with 28 counts of making threatening calls and conveying false information to police, according to the indictment filed in federal court in Orlando. Separately, he was charged with three more counts of making threatening calls, conveying false information and cyberstalking in an indictment filed in federal court in Athens, Georgia.
Investigators from both countries have been questioning the youth since his arrest last month, and new details of his alleged crimes are continuing to emerge.
The youth, whose name is under a gag order in Israel, also reportedly charged for his phone threat services on occasion, specifying incidents in which he issued bomb threats to U.S. educational institutions, forcing their evacuation, on behalf of students who wanted exams postponed.He was paid in Bitcoins for these threats; almost 2 million shekels (more than half a million dollars) worth of Bitcoins was found in his internet bank account.
It added that the youth has expressed no sorrow or regret for his actions.
His lawyer has said that he has a brain tumor and suffers from autism. His parents have also argued that he is unfit to stand trial, though they have apologized for his alleged actions. On Thursday an Israeli court extended his remand until April 24.
NORFOLK, Va. — A Somali pirate has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in attacking a U.S. Navy ship.
Federal prosecutors said Wednesday that 31-year-old Mohamed Farah was among seven pirates who tried to commandeer the USS Ashland in 2010.
The men had mistaken the Ashland for a cargo vessel in the Gulf of Aden. After the pirates opened fire, U.S. sailors destroyed their skiff and killed one pirate.
The sailors rescued the surviving pirates. Farah and the remaining attackers were prosecuted in federal court in Norfolk and sentenced to various jail terms.
Farah’s attorney, Jason Dunn, told The Associated Press in an email that the sentence was excessive but unavoidable.
The mandatory sentence for piracy has been life in prison since 1909. Before that, the mandatory punishment was death.
Norman T. Hatch, a former Marine cinematographer whose Academy Award-winning footage of a punishing American victory in the Pacific during World War IIwas so grisly that it had required White House approval before it could be released, died on April 22 in Alexandria, Va. He was 96.
(United States Marine Corps)
His death was confirmed by his son, N. Thomas Hatch Jr.
Armed with a .45 caliber pistol, Staff Sergeant Hatch, 22 years old at the time, waded ashore on tiny Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands in November 1943 at the beginning of a 76-hour battle that would claim the lives of an estimated 1,000 Marines and sailors and more than 4,000 Japanese soldiers.
Years later, after he had long left the service, Mr. Hatch recalled that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had been reluctant to release gruesome images of dead Marines floating in the waters off Tarawa, but that the journalist Robert Sherrod had convinced him that bringing the grim battle home would rally Americans behind the war.
A Marine with more than 20 years of service has been charged in a civilian court with posting intimate pictures of a woman online, officials said.
“We are aware of the alleged charges against Master Sgt. Theophilus Thomas, and are working with NCIS and local authorities to ensure a thorough investigation,” said Capt. John Roberts, a spokesman for the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.
Thomas, 38, is an avionics chief, currently assigned to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 167 at Marine Corps Air Station New River in Jacksonville, N.C. News of Thomas’ arrest was first reported by the Jacksonville Daily News.
He is accused of posting one nude photo of the woman and six pictures of her wearing underwear on April 14, according to an arrest warrant, which does not identify the website where the pictures appeared.
Jacksonville police arrested Thomas on April 20 after the woman told authorities about the pictures, said police spokeswoman Beth Purcell. The woman had previously been in a relationship with him.
It’s been three years in the making, but helicopter crews who flew during the Vietnam War will have their own monument at Arlington National Cemetery.
The Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association and Congress came together for the Vietnam Helicopter Crew Monument Act, directing the secretary of the Army to place a 2 1/2-foot by 2 1/2-foot monument at the cemetery in Virginia. It will be placed in Section 35 along Memorial Drive, not far from the Tomb of the Unknowns.
Photo Credit: Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Bob Hesselbein, who flew AH-1 Cobra gunships in Vietnam, helped spearhead the campaign for the memorial.
In April 2014, Hesselbein, legacy committee chairman of the pilots association, and other members went to Arlington Cemetery to discuss donating a tree. Instead, one of the historians suggested donating a monument.
“We discovered that the greatest concentration of combat casualties who operated helicopters in the Vietnam War are in Arlington,” he told Military Times on Thursday.
A California teenager died Tuesday during a physical training session in preparation for shipping to Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego in August, officials said.
F,loyd Burrell Jr., 17 collapsed at a park in Brentwood, California, after running a half-mile and doing two other warmup exercises with other poolees in the delayed entry program, officials said. He had passed his initial strength test required to head to recruit training.
“The incident is currently under investigation,” said Capt. Skye Martin, a spokeswoman for the 12th Marine Corps Recruiting District. “Our Marines ensure that all appropriate safety precautions are meticulously observed during every physical training conducted by future Marines.”
(United States Marine Corps)
After Burrell collapsed, a Marine and a nearby certified lifeguard tried to revive him until paramedics arrived, officials said. The Pittsburg High School senior was pronounced dead around 7 p.m. Tuesday after being taken to a hospital.
Preliminary indications are that Burrell suffered from an “apparent unexpected medical condition,” the Brentwood Police Department posted on its Facebook page. The Contra Costa County Coroner’s Office has scheduled an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.
CLOVIS — Two men found dead by Clovis police on April 20 were arguing over marijuana and likely responsible for the deaths of each other, police said Thursday after completing their week-long investigation.
David “Bo Bo” Lopez, 43, and Carlos Gallegos, 25, were found dead a few blocks from each other near Martin Luther King Boulevard.
A news release issued Thursday from Clovis Police Capt. Roman Romero notes Lopez was found dead in an apartment building, while Gallegos was found dead in a car a few blocks away.
The Office of the Medical Investigator ruled:
• Lopez died of a single gunshot to the right buttock “causing extensive damage to his internal organs.”
• Gallegos succumbed to “a single stab wound to the right side of his neck, nicking his carotid artery.”
According to the release:
• Witnesses told police a fist fight started after the two men argued over the portioning of marijuana. They reported seeing blood and said Gallegos left the apartment with his hand on his neck.
• Witnesses said Gallegos returned with a handgun and fired twice, with one shot hitting Lopez.
• During the crime scene searches, a knife with blood on the tip of the blade was found in Lopez’ pocket and a gun was found under Gallegos in the vehicle.
NEW ORLEANS —New Orleans firefighters rescued a naked man who scaled an electrical tower Thursday morning in New Orleans East.
The man was spotted before noon in the tower on Jourdan Road in the New Orleans Police Department’s Seventh District.
(WDSU, New Orleans)
New Orleans police only confirmed Thursday that its crisis negotiators were sent to the tower to negotiate with the man, who was not identified.
New Orleans Emergency Medical Services officials said in an update Thursday that the man scaled the tower, naked, around 9:30 a.m. Investigators have not said what the man’s reason was for climbing the tower.
WDSU reporter Travers Mackel said the New Orleans Fire Department used a firetruck with a large ladder to negotiate with the man, who was rescued before 5 p.m.
The man was taken to a hospital and the scene was cleared.
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