Latest news with #VeteranSalute
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Potwin veteran shaped by overseas unrest
POTWIN, Kan. (KSNW) — June 13 marks the 23rd anniversary of a U.S. military incident in South Korea that left two teenage girls dead and sparked international outrage. While Army veteran Mitchell Tamer wasn't there when it happened, the event would come to shape his most challenging year in uniform. Now living a quiet life in Potwin—working at the post office and making music—Tamer reflects on how the tragedy and its aftermath left a lasting impact. 'There had been an accident between a convoy and two little girls who ended up losing their lives,' Tamer recalled. 'And the Korean people weren't happy about us being there after that.' The 2002 'Yangju Highway Incident,' in which a U.S. military convoy accidentally struck and killed two 14-year-old South Korean girls, occurred before Tamer arrived at Camp Red Cloud. But protests continued long after. Tune into KSN News at 10 every Wednesday for our Veteran Salute 'Here we are on our very own camp with our weapons in our hands, linking our arms to make a human wall so demonstrators couldn't come through the walls or the doors,' he said. Though targeted by protesters, Tamer said he came to understand the anger. 'It took a lot of years to process it and come to terms especially when you understand why the people felt the way they did,' he said. That empathy was born of curiosity—and a deep respect for other cultures. 'When you're a small-town country boy like I was, you're thrown into everybody's culture. People from all over the country, and you get to understand and experience their culture a little bit, and then they bring you overseas and there's a whole new culture there,' Tamer said. After South Korea, Tamer joined the Army Reserves and narrowly avoided deployment to Iraq. 'I found out, pretty much the same day I was going to become a father for the first time that I was also going to get reactivated,' he said. 'And I was lucky. I was lucky I didn't have to go.' He retired from the Reserves as a sergeant in 2007. Today, he shares life with his wife and continues to reflect on the value of all experiences. 'What I want people to think about is how the experience in their lives, good or bad, it's all learning and it's all precious. All of it.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Wichita native saw the world with the Army before coming home
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – A veteran born and raised in Wichita is now enjoying his retirement back home after a globetrotting Army career. Robert Goodale grew up in Wichita, and after graduating from high school in 1996, he enlisted in the Army. 'Wasn't quite ready to go to college just yet. The army seemed like a good spot. The recruiter talked a really good game,' he said. Goodale trained as a light infantryman and then went to Asia. His first assignment in the DMZ between North and South Korea was no picnic. 'You were given a mandatory four-day pass every month because of the stress of the environment. You're basically a pebble in the road. If they (North Korea) had come across the border, there's only 200 of us there, so it's not like we would have done much,' he said. After a year in Korea, Goodale returned to the U.S. and joined the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. During his time with them, he was deployed twice. He was first sent to El Salvador and Nicaragua to protect U.S. civil and medical engineers who were rebuilding following Hurricane Mitch. 'There were shots fired, things getting stolen, nobody got kidnapped or anything. But the president was going to pull (U.S. civil engineers) all out because Nicaraguan security forces or Honduran security forces couldn't protect them or wouldn't. And then both countries allowed him to send in Army infantry,' he said. Tune into KSN News at 10 every Wednesday for our Veteran Salute Goodale says his final deployment was much less stressful and sent him to Egypt, where he spent half a year guarding the Sinai Peninsula. 'You're guarding a little strip between Egypt and Israel, and you're kind of just deterring a future war between the two. It's pretty standardized and pretty cut and dry,' he said. Goodale returned to the U.S. and was eventually transferred to Fort Hood, Texas, before retiring as a sergeant and returning to his hometown. 'I felt good about it. I mean, my family's here, some of my friends are here. I didn't have a problem with it,' he said. Since returning, Goodale has attended Butler College and even started his own insurance agency business, but his passion is the charitable works of VFW 3115, where he is the post commander. 'We try to do several things out in the community. We collaborate with other organizations for homeless feeds, socks, underwear, anything a veteran may need,' he said. Goodale credits the leadership skills he learned in the Army for helping him lead his VFW today. 'Taught me a lot of responsibility, punctuality, leadership, it pretty much made me who I am. And who I am, I like that person because he gets the job done,' he said. If you want to nominate a veteran for our Veteran Salute, send an email to connect3news@ or fill out our online contact form! Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Veteran Salute: Following in the footsteps of older brothers, ending with two decades of service
MANHATTAN (KSNT) – A local veteran is celebrating his accomplishments. Not only for what he did while he was in service , but also what he did to get out. Keeping with family tradition Gary Kraner enlisted into the navy at 18. Following in the footsteps of his older brothers. With no clear plan after graduating high school in 1970, Gary joined the service. He ultimately built a 20-year career filled with accomplishments, including earning the rank of Chief Warrant Officer. Along the way, a friendly sibling rivalry with his brother Mike pushed both to see who could climb the ranks first. Veteran Salute: Fueling the frontlines of Iraq 'Brother Mike was in the navy. He was on the Belknap out of Norfolk, Virginia, and he got out after four years, but stayed in the reserves for his entire career,' Kraner said. 'And he retired as a master chief. So, it was always a race between me and my brother on who was going to make rank first. And the only way I could beat him was to become an officer, so I worked toward my commission, and got commissioned.' Receiving the title of Chief Warrant Officer was an honor for Kraner as this recognizes him as an expert in his field of engineering, knowing the ins and outs of pumps and valves, boilers, gas turbine engines and diesel engines. But when asked what stuck out to him most after serving for twenty years, being commissioned was the most memorable for him. 'My dad had just passed away a few months before, but I had worked so hard to get there, going to college and everything and getting my engineering degree,' Kraner said. 'And then my sister and brother were present. When I got commissioned my sister was right there. She was the one who put my shoulder burst on. That was my proudest moment.' Veteran Salute: Breaking the glass ceiling stateside, volunteering to fight overseas Kraner was ready for more until an unexpected phone call from a friend back in San Diego. That opportunity was writing and designing a computer program leading him to send in his retirement papers. 'I did the design work, he did the programming, and then we had to work the bugs out, close the back doors and all that. But I did that for two and a half years,' Kraner said. 'We finally got the program out and now the air force is still being currently used by the air force, the coast guard, the marines and he navy. But that's something I did, I mean it's been revamped since, but I'm the one who designed the program.' For the grand finale of his naval career , Kraner transitioned into civil service. He retired as a GS13. For more Veteran Salute, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Army made this Wichita veteran an X-ray expert
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – One Wichita Army veteran who dedicated a quarter-century to serving his country served in both the reserves and as an Army X-ray technician. Wichita veteran Jeffery Vaughn joined the reserves in 1985. After college and working for a department store, he decided to commit himself to the Army full-time. 'They offered me to be an X-ray tech or a paralegal. I knew enough about radiology, and there's a lot of different opportunities you can do, and so that's what I decided, 'this is what I wanted to do,'' Vaughn said. For the next two decades, he served as an Army radiology technologist. After a year of schooling and training, he was sent to Belgium, where he met his wife. 'I was at the supreme headquarters for the Allied Powers in Europe. That's where I met my wife. She wasn't active duty. She came to visit there. Her aunt was the head nurse at the hospital,' Vaughn said. He then took his X-ray expertise to multiple stops throughout the U.S., including Fort Benning in Georgia and Fort Campbell in Kentucky. His enlistment ended after that, and it was time to make a decision. 'At the time, (the Army) offered me to go to Hawaii, and I said, 'OK, somebody's got to do it so it might as well be me, right,'' Vaughn said. Tune into KSN News at 10 every Wednesday for our Veteran Salute Following Hawaii, he worked at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, and finally at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in our nation's capital. Vaughn says one of the main lessons he learned as an army radiology technologist is that X-raying soldiers isn't that different from X-raying civilians. 'You learn to treat them just as human beings. And so not just as a soldier. They are human beings, and you have to treat them as such. And if I was practicing now, outside of teaching, I would do the same to all my patients,' he said. And speaking of teaching, that's exactly what he started doing here in the Air Capital following his Army retirement as a Sergeant First Class in 2010. He spent half a decade at the old Wichita clinic and then attended Newman University, where he currently runs the radiology program. Vaughn may not have been born in Wichita, but you can tell he's a Kansan at heart, especially when he leaves the Sunflower State. 'When I go back to the East Coast, now I get a little claustrophobic because of all the trees and the mountains and stuff. So when I come back here, it's still wide-open,' he said. If you want to nominate a veteran for our Veteran Salute, send an email to connect3news@ or fill out our online contact form! Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Veteran Salute: Training others around the globe
MANHATTAN (KSNT) – Serving more than two decades with the Army, Sergeant First Class John R. Thomas trained fellow soldiers around the globe before finding his forever home in the Sunflower State. Drafted into the Vietnam conflict, Thomas deployed overseas in the late 1960's. 'We was like a ready force,' Thomas said. 'They would helicopter us in to an area right away looking, researching recon-ing. They sit there and watched us eat dinner. It was a regiment that wasn't looking to be found, they was hiding. When we got finished, the commander said right through there John, let's go. It lasted, I think they said 10 or 12 hours. It was a pretty good battle. Everybody had been looking for them, they was dangerous.' Veteran Salute: Communicating for Kuwait combat During the conflict, Thomas was wounded in the wrist, shoulder and took shrapnel to the back of his leg. Thankfully the purple heart veteran had a swift recovery, and even saw a bit of divine intervention. 'If it wasn't for that dog tag on my leg, something hit it,' he said. 'It was a good thing I had that side pocket, because it didn't go in my leg, it went into that and stayed there.' The Sergeant didn't let those injuries deter him from serving. After some time stateside, he spent seven years with the 1st and 13th infantry in Germany, training U.S. and local soldiers. 'We were not too far from the Russian border, they kept us training all the time,' Thomas said. 'Stay alert, you know. They warned us about the Russian could ride around freely. Don't give them no information, but report them when you see them.' Training others abroad didn't stop there though. Veteran Salute: Keeping aircrafts sky bound 'In the summer we would go out and train the National Guard at different places, like Virginia and Puerto Rico,' he said. 'Then we went on Reforgers.' Thomas approached his leadership role with compassion, and saw himself as a father figure for the younger soldiers. 'I learned from the older generation with how they treat 'em and everything,' Thomas said. 'I treat 'em like men, not like hollering at them or anything. I was never at that level of hollering at people. I talked to them just like I'm talking to you.' Thomas would finish his service at Fort Riley, where he fell in love with the Manhattan community. He's called that region home since 1989, and continues to give back nowadays by volunteering throughout the Flint Hills. For more Veteran Salute, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
