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Texas Vet Hopes to Bury Father Lost for Decades in Alaska

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picture - Vet AlaskaA 77-year-old Southeast Texas man hopes to one day be able to bury the remains of his father after the discovery last year in an Alaskan glacier of a military plane that crashed in 1952, killing all aboard.

Retired Col. Jerry Hoblit, a Vietnam veteran, was 16 when he learned that his father, Col. Noel Hoblit, was among the 52 people killed when the Air Force C-124A Globemaster crashed on Nov. 22, 1952, on Mount Gannett.

“I was asleep and I heard the commotion downstairs. My mother was crying,” Jerry Hoblit, who lives in Willis, about 50 miles north of Houston, told The Courier of Montgomery County (https://bit.ly/14uNnAd ). “Being an Air Force brat, I knew exactly what was going on.”

The debris was discovered in June 2012 while Alaska National Guardsmen were flying a Blackhawk helicopter during a training mission near the glacier about 40 miles east of Anchorage. The excavation process has slowly moved forward since then.

After the crash, military teams tried to go to the site, but constant bad weather got in the way until it got buried in the snow and became part of the glacier.

Read more from this story HERE.

Disabled Veteran Kicked Off US Airways Plane, Refused to Put Service Dog on Floor (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox

Photo Credit: Fox

A newly released video has put valley-based US Airways in a tough position. A Vietnam vet with a service dog got into a heated discussion with a flight attendant and then was escorted off the plane for security reasons.

Video: “No! I’d appreciate if you’d get the hell off this ground and get where we’re going!”

Emotions ran high onboard a US Airways flight from Phoenix to El Paso. This video has gone viral.

“I’m sorry folks but I’ve earned the right to have this service animal because of my service to this country in Vietnam. I am 100 percent disabled, I have a service dog because of it and everyone has to obey the ADA laws except this airline! So I’m sorry but I’m not budging!”

This passenger wants his service dog, a golden retriever, to remain seated on the empty seat next to him.

Read more from this story HERE.

Police: Marine Corps Veteran Stops Carjacker Holding Knife to Girl’s Throat (+video)

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Photo Credit: WFTVBy WFTV. Police said a carjacker who tried to steal four cars was captured Tuesday.

Detectives said Eliud Montalvo attempted several carjackings that were all within a block of one another at the corner of Conway and Curry Ford roads.

Officials said a retired Marine Corps veteran, Andrew Koplin, stopped the carjacker with his concealed weapon.

The first incident involved an 80-year-old woman in a parking lot. The other attempted carjackings happened within a block of the first one.

The last two were stopped by Koplin, who said he noticed Montalvo pulling a knife in a Publix parking lot.

Read more from this story HERE.

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More on the Attempted Carjackings from the Orlando Sentinel

By Jerriann Sullivan. Several Good Samaritans, including one with a gun, joined police in chasing down an Orlando man after he allegedly tried to carjack four different drivers at knifepoint Monday morning.

Eliud Martir Montalvo’s rampage started at 9:30 a.m. when he ran toward 80-year-old Joan Shedd and grabbed for her car keys in the Publix parking lot at 4402 Curry Ford Road, an Orlando Police Department arrest report said.

Shedd didn’t give up her keys, so 54-year-old Montalvo kicked her rear end, knocking her on the ground, police said.

A witness told police the Orlando man kept kicking the elderly woman before a man chased him away.

Montalvo ran from Shedd’s vehicle to Connie Sue Gooley’s truck and tried to carjack it, the report said. Read more from this story HERE.

Veteran’s Antique Guns Confiscated After Visit to His Therapist (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Arthur Lovi, 72, is in an ongoing legal battle with authorities after his antique guns were confiscated following a controversial session he had with a therapist.

His counselor claims that, during the appointment, he threatened a doctor who, years ago, treated his deceased wife. After the session in question, she called the Arlington Heights police in Illinois to report his controversial comments. While reporting the incident, she also told authorities that she didn’t think it was a viable threat and that he wasn’t a danger to himself or others…

In addition to sharing this emotional pain with the therapist, he detailed memories that haunted him from an Air Force crash he was involved in back in the 1960s, the drowning death of his granddaughter years later and the loss of his son-in-law to a drug overdose, among other tragedies…

The therapist’s call to authorities sparked yet more pain for Lovi. Police contacted the grieving widower following the therapist’s report and asked whether he had any weapons. The retiree explained that he had three antique firearms (one was a 100-year-old musket). While he claims he had never fired the guns, what happened next may be surprising…

The Daily Herald explains: “…that night about 11 p.m. there was a knock at Lovi’s door. His son answered and saw four or five police officers standing outside [and Lovi’s guns were confiscated].”

Read more from this story HERE.

Grandma, 72, Shoots at Home Intruder in California, Defends Actions

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Photo Credit: AP

A 72-year-old Southern California grandmother who shot at — and narrowly missed — a man trying to break into her home said Tuesday she was shocked at the attention her action was getting but does not regret defending herself and her husband, an 85-year-old World War II veteran who uses a wheelchair…

During a 911 call of the incident, Cooper can be heard begging with the dispatcher to send deputies and warns that she has a gun at the ready as her Rottweiler barks furiously in the background.

Minutes later, a breathless Cooper says the man has come to the back porch and is trying to get in the house through a sliding door. Through the vertical blinds, Cooper saw his silhouette just inches away through the glass as he began to slide open the door.

“I’m firing!” Cooper shouts to the dispatcher as a loud band goes off…

“You’d better get the police here. I don’t know whether I hit him or not. I’m not sure. He’s standing at my door, my back door. He’s in my yard,” she said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Long-Lost Dog Tag Returned to NY WWII Vet Who Dropped it in French Barley Field

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Photo Credit: APIrving Mann has been in business long enough to be skeptical of out-of-the-blue offers that seem too good to be true.

So the founder of Mann’s Jewelers in Rochester was cautious but intrigued when an email arrived at his store from a woman wondering if he could possibly be the Irving Mann whose military tag she said she’d found a day earlier in her barley field in France.

After all, the World War II veteran didn’t recall losing a dog tag after landing in Normandy with the 90th Infantry division on D-Day and fighting across Nazi-occupied France.

“It had to be false,” thought Mann, who’d recently celebrated his 88th birthday.

“You hear of so many scams going on, that somebody’s going to fake it, do some research and say, `I would be willing to return your dog tag. However, it will cost you X number of dollars.”‘

Read more from this story HERE.

America’s Oldest Veteran to Spend Quiet Memorial Day at Texas Home

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Photo Credit: APFor his 107th Memorial Day, Richard Arvine Overton, who saw many of his fellow soldiers fall in the line of duty in World War II and even more die over the following decades, is planning a quiet day at the Texas home he built after returning home from World War II.

He wouldn’t want it any other way.

Overton, who is believed to be the nation’s oldest veteran, told FoxNews.com he’ll likely spend the day on the porch of his East Austin home with a cigar nestled in his right hand, perhaps with a cup of whiskey-stiffened coffee nearby.

“I don’t know, some people might do something for me, but I’ll be glad just to sit down and rest,” the Army veteran said during a phone interview. “I’m no young man no more.”

Overton, who was born on May, 11, 1906, in Texas’ Bastrop County, has gotten used to being the center of attention of late. In addition to being formally recognized by Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell on May 9, Overton traveled to Washington, D.C., on May 17 as part of Honor Flight, a nonprofit group that transports veterans free of charge to memorials dedicated to their service. Despite serving in the South Pacific from 1942 through 1945, including stops in Hawaii, Guam, Palau and Iwo Jima to name a few, it was Overton’s first time in the nation’s capital.

Read more from this story HERE.

NY SAFE Act Nabs Its First Gun Owner: An Iraq War Vet

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Photo Credit: Buffalo News

A Western New York man now faces seven years in prison for violating Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s new gun control-law, the NY Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act (or SAFE Act).

Benjamin M. Wassell, an Iraq War veteran, was charged with twice selling newly banned military-style ‘assault’ weapons and standard-capacity magazines to an undercover police officer as part of a sting operation conducted by State Police and the New York Attorney General’s Office, the Buffalo News reported.

Altogether, the 32-year-old Silver Creek resident was slapped with three felony charges and one misdemeanor, which as noted could end up putting Wassell, who has no prior convictions, behind bars for as many as seven years.

“By selling these illegal firearms, Mr. Wassell’s actions had potentially dangerous consequences for New Yorkers,” said state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. “We have seen far too much gun violence in our state in recent months, and the sale of illegal semiautomatic weapons will not go unpunished.”

On Jan. 24 Wassell sold a Del-Ton AR-15 to an undercover agent along with six standard-capacity magazines and 299 rounds of ammunition for $1,900.

Read more from this story HERE.

DOJ Fighting To Deny Veteran Right To Own A Firearm Based On 40-Year Old Misdemeanor

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More prosecutorial indiscretion

Really, why does our government waste its resources on cases like the fight to prevent Jefferson Wayne Schrader from purchasing a firearm?

This case demonstrates what happens when a bureaucracy deprives someone of a right just because the bureaucracy can, and then the full force of the U.S. government goes to bat against the individual for no reason other than it can.

The case is Schrader v. Holder. In a January 11, 2013 decision, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the government’s position, but the question is why is the government exercising such a ridiculous discretion?

The short version is that Schrader got into a fistfight when he was in the Navy in 1968. Schrader was convicted of a misdemeanor and received no jail time.

That conviction prevented Schrader from clearing a background check for shotgun and handgun purchases in 2008 because federal law prohibits anyone convicted of a crime which carries a potential penalty of more than two years from owning a firearm. Maryland law at the time in 1968 carried no maximum penalty for a misdemeanor, but the feds construed the lack of a maximum penalty as being a potential penalty more than two years.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Interview with Facebook-posting Marine Veteran: “I am Scared for My Country”

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In an interview with Attorney John Whitehead today, Marine Veteran Brandon Raub describes his arrest for his Facebook posts, his incarceration in a psych ward, and the state of the country: “I’m pretty tough, so I rolled with the punches. But it made me scared for my country that a man can be snatched out of his property without being read his rights, I think it should be very alarming to all Americans.” Here’s the interview: