It makes me feel great, said Carole De Nola, when she learned of the letter. During the eight-hour drive back to North Carolina, Laura split off to take her sister to the airport in Raleigh. The next day around 7 p.m., one of the campers called 911. Nevertheless, local officials were satisfied by Lavignes claim of self-defense. So does his best friend, 21-year-old Christian Romero, who is also a paratrooper stationed at Fort Bragg, but in a different unit. Theme: Newsup by Themeansar. It was much easier, ironically, to get information on Fort Bragg-based personnel who died in foreign countries. That was the only drug he was for; everything else he was against. Its a lot of TBI, or traumatic brain injury. Nicole and her husband also had small children. The only known common denominator between them was Fort Bragg. From March 2021 to March 2022 deaths from drug overdoses fell nearly 4% from the previous year, the CDC says. There were at least six deaths by suicide among the 11,500 soldiers there. Those two would always pull some shit, she says. Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Captain Greg Captain Van Patten confirmed that MCSO detectives are considering the death a homicide "because of a gunshot wound." To hear that such a high-powered group of senators had taken up the cause was very encouraging. He was the rock in my life. He doesnt believe the story told by the other six campers that Roman-Martinez simply wandered off at night, leaving his phone, wallet, and glasses behind in the tent. In his LinkedIn photo, Dumas looks fairly nondescript. According to Seth, nine more young and fit soldiers were found unresponsive in their bunks. Thirteen killed themselves. The DMED is the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branchs web-based tool to remotely query de-identified active component personnel and medical event data contained within the Defense Medical Surveillance System (DMSS).. Two months later, someone nearly died of a heroin overdose at Lavignes house. Both had been killed by gunshots, and according to news reports, shell casings were scattered on the ground. He was taken home that same night by some of his Delta Force teammates. When they were doing cocaine, Mabey says, he always acted perfectly fine. With multiple police pistols pointed at him and officers shouting at him to drop the gun, Lewis raised his weapon and shot himself in the forehead. NOTICE: This site is purely a religious organization, anything that seems like political or health based discussion is simply our religious doctrine and beliefs. Not only was he a decorated Green Beret with dozens of badges and patches and medals from 14 different deployments, he was also a member of Delta Force, the most elite military unit in the United States. I was never a detective, she says, but even the limited crime-scene investigation that Ive done tells me these guys are full of shit. The man on the ground, who had been dropped by a single bullet to the right temple, was 44-year-old Timothy Dumas. By the end of the year, there had been 21 suicides at Fort Bragg, more than at any other U.S. military post. Indeed, you would have to pore over the news archives long and hard to find a single negative story on the unit, whose official name is the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, also known as the Combat Applications Group. How they knew each other, the nature of their connection, remains a mystery. Hed read an article about hallucinogenic mushrooms, she says. Everything thats happening at Fort Bragg is horrible, says Lynda Lewis, mother of the Special Forces medic who murdered his pregnant wife. A particular area of concern is U.S. Army Alaska, USA TODAY has found. Could these deaths indicate a surge in suicides and overdoses? The presence of fentanyl in deaths involving each drug category in each year is displayed on the left. The police came and he was arrested in possession of cocaine, a digital scale, a crack pipe, a revolver, a hunting rifle, a snub-nosed pistol, and a pump-action shotgun. After the COVID-19 vaccine protocol was mandated on the military, the number of medical issues spiked to 22 million in the first 10 months of 2021 a 1,000 percent increase! Of fatal overdoses, how many were ruled a suicide? It included Dumas name and the type of handgun he used, but its not clear if he was taken into custody. Around 4 p.m., they arrived at Lavignes house, a cookie-cutter tract home at the end of a blank cul-de-sac. Lavigne was entitled to a variety of due process protections. Five days ago, an early morning shooting along Highway 20 resulted in the death of 52-year-old Fort Bragg man Daniel Martin Shealor. Lavigne was entitled to a variety of due process protections. Out of the 83 sudden and unexpected fatalities, eleven of them were determined to be from natural causes. A few minutes later, she began to record a video of her little godson dancing on the living-room carpet. The last person to have seen him alive that I could identify is a woman named Jessie Marie Patino, a tattoo artist and junkyard mechanic. He was planning on coming home and building a log cabin on our property, says his dad. Out of the 83 sudden and unexpected fatalities, eleven of them were determined to be from natural causes. Her brother was the same way. At least 44 Fort Bragg soldiers died stateside in 2020 several of them were homicides. All of that has a cumulative effect., A damaged soul plagued by mental torment, and also more thoughtful, more introverted than his Delta Force teammates, is how Nicole describes Lavigne. Its not just combat trauma and moral injury, says Naylor. Read our Pledge HERE. In May of that year, he met Mark Leshikar, another stubborn, hardheaded country boy from way up north. Leshikar was a native of rural Idaho and had lived in Washington state, near the Canadian border. But in each case, the charges were dismissed. There were a couple others that were with us, she tells me, drinking and partying. According to officials, 33 of the fatalities are of undetermined causes. He had migraines, nightmares, personality changes., She still has his body in cold storage, in a freezer in Alaska, because the Army wont turn over his autopsy report or medical file, and she doesnt want to lose evidence that his brain was damaged from TBI or that he was medicated for PTSD. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. Weve been looking for him all day. As soon as the rockets began to burst, We had to get out of there. These incidents, the letter read, indicate a problem that may be underreported, and are a call for urgent action. The problems persisted. In recent years, whistleblowers have alleged that the use of hard drugs is widespread among special operators. He was getting clean.. The news outlet in early September reported that a total of 109 soldiers assigned to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, active and reserve, died in 2020 and 2021 from drug overdoses. Fort Bragg needs to be blown up, that is, exposed to scrutiny, says Tammy de Mirza, Sarahs aunt. Its real strange, says Bill Lavigne Sr., father of the slain Delta Force soldier, that something like this can go on at Fort Bragg, and nobody seems to know nothing. He saw people die. Ive seen it. Army authorities wont disclose the total number of soldiers stationed there who died in 2020, but Lavigne was one of a spate of homicides and suicides that brought the tally up to at least 44, pushing Fort Bragg to a decisive first-place finish in a race no one wanted to win. And there have been several murders in the last few years around Fort Bragg with apparent links to drug-trafficking by elite soldiers, or distribution networks run by ordinary enlisted men in the 82nd. On a half dozen occasions since 2014, a Navy SEAL or a Green Beret has pleaded guilty to heavy-duty narcotics charges. Were still looking into it.. Nine US soldiers, all stationed at Fort Bragg, all in their 20s or 30s, recently died at from "undetermined" causes, or after being discovered "unresponsive" in their bunks. Also, this website is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. This means soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg are twenty-seven times more likely to die unexpectedly on their home base than in overseas combat! April 29, 2022, 6:09 AM PDT. He was a sweet, animal-loving kid who went to Afghanistan at the age of 19 and came back a different person, she says. Isaiah Danfort Nakita Burns Terrance Washington Dwight Hogans Sr . The DA, Billy West, did not respond to requests for comment but told the Fayetteville Observer that two other people whod been at Lavignes house took responsibility for the drugs. I dont get intimidated by people easily. In January of 2021, Army captain Robert Latham died suddenly of an apparent heart attack. The 32-year-old was previously in top physical condition. He was a very hostile individual, says a detective who used to rent a house from Dumas. According to officials, 33 of the fatalities are of undetermined causes. Vandoliers Play Tennessee Concert in Dresses to Protest State's New Drag Bill He sped off from the scene and was charged with a hit-and-run. On February 9, 2022, Seth reported the death of 83 soldiers at Fort Bragg in the 18 months ending in June 2021. We love helping others and believe thats one of the reasons we are chosen as Ambassadors of the Kingdom, to serve Gods children. He was trained for that., The Army officer who did the line-of-duty investigation, a copy of which was first obtained by Jack Murphy of Connecting Vets, noted several discrepancies between the statements Lavigne gave and the evidence collected, including the absence of a screwdriver. Rolling Stone published a detailed report last April identifying dozens of deaths at Fort Bragg, including homicides, suicides, and soldiers found "unresponsive" in their barracks and homes. 3 soldiers charged in Fort Bragg cold case, death still 'unsolved' Your Army 3 soldiers charged in Fort Bragg cold case, death still 'unsolved' By Davis Winkie Jan 14, 2022 Spc.. But when she called her husband on FaceTime, he seemed perfectly normal, leading her to conclude that they were playing a joke on her. Leshikars killing was ruled a justifiable homicide, but Swain declines to say on what grounds investigators came to that conclusion. They do what they want.. Its not even clear exactly how many soldiers died at Fort Bragg in 2020. The charges against the soldiers are unrelated to the. He was in an IED blast. Let's Break the Censorship Together, Opt in and Spread the Word! We hope you dont mind as its expensive to pay for bandwidth and time to do this. Have a nice day. , I go to the location listed on the incident report to learn more, and find four people, two men and two women, living in a one-bedroom apartment in a drab complex near Cross Creek. The two were found dead on the same day in June 2021, just two weeks after airborne master sergeant Martin Acevedo III was caught trafficking cocaine. We were trying to find the park ranger or their offices, or anything.. In response to these and other embarrassments, including President Trumps pardon of former SEAL Eddie Freaking Evil Gallagher, the commander of all special-operations forces, Gen. Richard Clarke, ordered a comprehensive ethics review in August 2019. They speak Spanish with a Caribbean accent and dont know any Timothy Dumas. Notice: There are affiliate links present on this website, both from the control of Survive the News and from other websites that we do not control. Its a horrible photo, Nicole says, like hes already dead. In real life, she says, he was more handsome: tall and bald, with a neatly trimmed beard. December 31, 2022 (85 years old) View obituary Wayne Richard Swanson December 25, 2022 (78 years old) View obituary William Schroeder Mertle December 23, 2022 (80 years old) View obituary Patricia Ann Menzies October 26, 2022 (82 years old) View obituary Peter Charles Paskos November 20, 2022 (87 years old) View obituary Norma Edith Wright Greene For the latest update on stopping the mandates in the military, read Liberty Councils updates on the Navy SEAL 1 v. Austin case. The Military Health System began administering the spike protein mRNA vaccine to military service members on December 14, 2020. But he scared me., a copy of which was first obtained by Jack Murphy of. He called me and said, Mom, Ive got a gun to my head. In 2018, Lavigne shot and killed his best friend, a Green Beret named Mark Leshikar, in an inexplicable, drug-fueled altercation that no one witnessed but two little girls. Thats when he made the statement that if I wanted my husband gone, he could take care of it, she says. Tom Sizemore, Heat and Saving Private Ryan Actor, Dead at 61 I called every day for a month. Early Saturday afternoon, park rangers had approached the group from Fort Bragg to ask them to move their vehicles, which were encroaching on protected sand dunes. Nice, normal people. Others, she says, are narcissistic, or have some other character defect that produces a sense of entitlement, like they can get away with anything. But he would be dead before his scheduled court appearance. One of the military doctors testified:It is my professional opinion that the major increases incidences of the above discussed instances of miscarriages, cancers, and disease were due to COVID-19 vaccinations.. That broke me, Romero says. But the Army isnt giving any, Illustration by Mike McQuade for Rolling Stone. Fort Bragg quit announcing soldier deaths at the end of July 2021 It's no wonder. Could there be a serious drug problem going on at Fort Bragg? This morning, a group of five senators led by Sen. Edward Markey demanded answers from the military on the subject of overdose deaths in the armed forces, in a letter sent to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. After the COVID-19 vaccine protocol was mandated on the military, the number of medical issues spiked to 22 million in the first 10 months of 2021 a 1,000 percent increase! Roman-Martinez had done multiple parachute jumps in the course of his training, but he was an HR specialist, a guy whose job it was to maintain personnel records. Trial dates for the soldiers vary, beginning on May 31 for Becerra and ending with Cochell's trial, which is scheduled for Sept. 26 to 29. Read About All Possible Detoxing Options HERE. The data was provided to Senator Ron Johnson at a historic round table meeting with doctors and lawyers. A warrant for his arrest was issued, and this time, for whatever reason, the charge was not dropped. He didnt respond, she says. He didnt spend a single night in jail. Daddy was mad at Uncle Billy for locking the door, Leshikars daughter told her mother and grandmother. Fort Bragg cannot explain why dozens of soldiers are dying in their own bunks. Ruth Sparks, a native of San Jose, California, and resident of Fort Bragg, California, passed away on December 1, 2022, surrounded by her family. On February 2nd, the Charlotte field office put out a bulletin seeking assistance from the public to establish a timeline of the two mens movements up until their deaths. The man in the bed of the truck, by contrast, didnt have to inflate his military credentials. Fort Bragg lost over 80 soldiers from sudden and unexplained causes, and stopped reporting on the deaths after June 2021, Atty. Drugs were in involved in the deaths of Joshua Diamon and Matthew Disney. Sparks, Ruth Fort Bragg, CA . The DMED is the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branchs web-based tool to remotely query de-identified active component personnel and medical event data contained within the Defense Medical Surveillance System (DMSS).. 1,000 Different Studies Show Extensive Evidence of COVID-19 Vaccines Adverse Events, read them HERE. Could these deaths indicate a surge in suicides and overdoses? According to the data, the five-year average for medical issues in the military was 1.7 million codes. A total of 21 deaths in the two years ending December 2021 can likely to attributed to drug overdoses, according to Rolling Stone. What role do these bioweapon shots have on the number of unexpected and undetermined deaths? No one at Fort Bragg will talk to me at all. That he would take care of him permanently. The military continues to be assaulted by mandates that harm soldiers physically and mentally. I did not get the impression that he was joking. He was strung out and weeping over Leshikar. What protocol is in place to identify and respond to an uptick in overdoses either generally or at a specific military installation? Nobody would listen., My son was the most honest, loyal, patriotic person, she continues. One evening in October 2013, Dumas came over to fix an electrical outlet, and Ballard had the distinct impression that he was hitting on her: He was trying to pry about where my husband was. She told him they were separated at the moment. Neutralizing the Spike Protein: Shikimic Acid*. His rudeness annoyed her. Such a pigheaded, egotistical man was the first impression he made on his wife, Laura, a 39-year-old paralegal from Hawaii whose dad was a Marine. The role of fentanyl in opioid-related deaths and substance-involved deaths as-a-whole continues to be a primary concern. He was from a suburb of Los Angeles called Chino. This May will be that investigations one-year mark, and no suspects have been identified. Harpwrote: Fort Bragg soldiers have been turning up unresponsive in their barracks on a disturbingly regular basis since the beginning of 2020, including Caleb Smither, Terrance Salazar, Jamie Boger, Joshua Diamond, Matthew Disney, Mikel Rubino, Michael Hamilton, and numerous others who have not been named.. He finally put the gun down. In the aftermath, Lynda says, There were no real repercussions.. Samuel Sigoloff, Peter Chambers and Theresa Long. The colonel used to be involved in selection, he said, and in addition to superlative marksmanship, he would look for introversion and artistic ability in potential recruits. Uh-huh., CID is aware of the deceaseds alleged drug activities, Grey, the CID spokesman, says. . Ari McGuire, died of a fentanyl overdose at Fort Bragg in August 2019, after he was allegedly introduced to drugs by his platoon sergeant in Afghanistan. You always got the sense from him that he was involved in something illegal, like some kind of crime ring. Billy joined Special Forces in 2006, became a Green Beret, and over the next decade averaged about one deployment a year. Sens. All Rights reserved. Just a while ago the FBI went and dived in the area, and didnt find anything. Pay Just S&H For Most Items! The Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) is used to detect surges of injury and illness in the military to make sure that all individuals are combat ready. Thomas Renz reveals the DoD whistleblowers during a Senate hearing. They are ghosts. She shows me the brief clip on her phone. Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren, and three other senators are demanding answers from Defense Sec. Leshikars mother, Tammy Mabey, knew her son had a substance-abuse problem. Estella thought he was joking. The things that have happened with special forces are outside the purview of the Fort Bragg command, he says. To the many lives she touched, from Milwaukee to Albion to Beijing and beyond, Rainbird's legacy is one of indelible passion, fierce independence, intellectual . Potter, Sandra ~27 February, 2023. Elite soldiers have access to whatever they want to get into: whores, guns, drugs, you name it, he writes. In the few photos of Delta Force that exist in the public domain, their faces are blurred or blacked out, their identities classified. They didnt do anything., So far, we have not been able to determine that that call on the 11th of December actually happened, says Maj. Lessard. I dont know any soldier who has done the tours he had done that doesnt., That was certainly the case with Lavigne. The 100 Best Albums of 2022, No narcotics were reported recovered, but for the Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, which is headquartered at Fort Bragg, it had all the makings of yet another drug scandal, the latest in a string of them to hit the special-operations community. At age 37, William Billy Lavigne II was a true Tier 1 operator, a master sergeant on the Armys most selective and clandestine task force. The DAs office did not respond to multiple requests for more information. Fort Bragg is the largest military base in the U.S. and the command post for the Armys most elite units, such as Delta Force and the Green Berets, which have borne a disproportionate burden of Americas never-ending wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, undergoing not just combat trauma and moral injury but a lot of traumatic brain injuries as well. That the FBI has taken the lead makes me feel a little bit better, says Billys father. Three unnamed Navy SEALs told CBS in 2017 that various teammates of theirs had tested positive for cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA, and heroin, and that the substance-abuse problem was growing. In 2014, a Navy SEAL named Angel Martinez-Ramos pleaded guilty after being arrested at Miamis airport with 10 kilos of cocaine in his carry-on. Thank you for your service. CID rejects any notion that anything but a complete and unbiased investigation was conducted, Grey says. He is unsmiling, his eyebrows raised, his eyes intently focused on the photographer. In November, yet another soldier, a 24-year-old Texan, was discovered unresponsive in his bunk, with no further details from the Army. The Commander-in-Chief, the Secretary of Defense, the Department of Defense(DoD) and the highest-ranking commanders are culpable for unlicensed medical malpractice and mass murder, and must be held responsible for their unethical actions of coercion and discrimination, which were used to force dangerous experiments on soldiers that injured, sickened, disabled and killed many. PART ONE: THE MYSTERIES The numbers are distressing. The island is small, with few trees and a thick crowd of people that weekend. Her husband and Lavigne remained with the other car, bound for Fayetteville, with the girls in the backseat. I thought it was guns because he would talk about all the parts he had access to, and all the guns he could get., At the time, Ballard had recently left the Navy and had yet to join the police or become a detective. We need answers, and we need solutions., Im calling on the Department of Defense to account for these deaths, he continued, and to give us a plan of action for safeguarding the active-duty service members who keep Americans safe.. Eleven of the deaths remain. The vacation lasted nearly a week. Harpwrote: Fort Bragg soldiers have been turning up unresponsive in their barracks on a disturbingly regular basis since the beginning of 2020, including Caleb Smither, Terrance Salazar, Jamie Boger, Joshua Diamond, Matthew Disney, Mikel Rubino, Michael Hamilton, and numerous others who have not been named.. He had served 19 years in the Army, including time in the 7th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, but as a property book officer, a glorified supply sergeant. To date, the House Armed Services Committee seems not to have noticed the similar pattern at Fort Bragg. The . In the three years since, De Nola has tried to lobby members of the House of Representatives to investigate opioid abuse in the military, but until now, there hasnt been any real action at the federal level. Roman-Martinezs partial remains had washed up on Shackleford Banks a few days later, but in the six months since then, few details had been forthcoming. The letter, sent to Defense Secretary . Its the last thing we spoke about.. She faults the Army for prescribing him tramadol, an addictive opiate, after he suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2017 from a roadside bomb in Tajikistan. He was convinced that people were following them. The cause of death is currently under investigation . Fish ate them, says his sister (above at her brothers funeral and on the beach where his remains were found). Mertle JR, William Schroeder "Bill" Fort Bragg, CA . He made it a point to choose guys who played musical instruments or painted. Editors picks Im tenderhearted, she says. He was arrested for a final time on September 17th, in Fayetteville, this time on a prostitution charge.