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Ranchers.net

I wonder how much more of this type problem will be showing up now- especially with the forced multiple tours many are having to put in :???: ...Even all the Generals admit that many have been stretched close to their limits...I only hope GW and the boys in D.C. make sure the VA has the capabilities to handle it... They've been known to drop the ball in the past and seem to think the VA system is always a good place to cut funding...

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Attorney: Ex-Ranger belongs in VA hospital, not behind prison bars
By ERIC NEWHOUSE
Tribune Projects Editor

Danny Ray Reed II, arrested after allegedly disrupting a commercial flight, belongs in a veterans hospital, his public attorney told a federal judge Friday.

"There are significant issues here that would tend to show that Mr. Reed is far different than he has been portrayed in the press," said Chief Public Defender Tony Gallagher.

Reed, 32, a broad-shouldered man with close-cropped hair and a very worried expression, nodded solemnly.

Handcuffed and shackled with chains wrapped around his waist, he was dressed in a striped Cascade County Jail uniform for his detention hearing.
"We are attempting to work with the Veterans Administration to fashion a release plan, but the VA does not always work with alacrity," Gallagher said.

Reed was charged with interfering with crewmembers Sunday on a flight from Denver to Great Falls and faces a maximum 20-year prison term and $250,000 fine if convicted.

Officials believe Reed drank alcohol before he boarded the flight and was served two more drinks while on board.

Reed is a former member of the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and currently suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to his parents.

"He was a highly trained medic, one of those people who'd shoot you, then fix you," his father, Danny Reed Sr., said Thursday in a telephone interview from his home in Lerona, W.Va.

The elder Reed said his son was part of the mission in which Pfc. Jessica Lynch was ambushed and captured. Five other soldiers were captured that day, and 11 were killed.

"After that mission was over, there were five executed American soldiers buried in a shallow grave," said Reed Sr.. "Those Rangers dug them up by hand and put them in plastic bags.

"He was having dreams of those soldiers coming back to life again," he added.

His mother, Sonja, said she hoped her son would be sent to a VA hospital, adding, "He needs the help."


Federal Magistrate Judge Keith Strong said the strategy sounded promising and continued the detention hearing until 10 a.m. Jan. 17 to give Gallagher more time to work with the VA.
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