• Vail Veterans get wounded warriors moving — in the snow

    By Eun Kyung Kim, TODAY contributor

    On these Colorado ski slopes, wounded veterans are not only learning a sport they once thought was out of reach, they’re also gaining confidence to rebuild their lives.

    Read: Amputee vets on the slopes: 'They find their new normal here' 

    “The thing about skiing, once I'm up there on the mountain, I'm on equal footing with everybody else,” Col. Gregory Gadson told TODAY during his fourth trip to the Vail slopes since losing both legs in Bagdad in 2007.

    Gadson is a graduate of the Vail Veterans Program, which has taught wounded warriors to ski for the past ten years.

    Lt. Col. David Rozelle, a program co-founder, noted that amputees used to face bleak prognosis in the early years of the recent conflicts abroad.

    “Now they're making it back,” said Rozelle, who refused to give up one of his favorite sports after he lost part of a leg in Baghdad in 2003. “They get in this program and they find their new normal here.”

    Cheryl Jenson, the program's executive director, said she initially came on board thinking the program was strictly about ski and snowboard instruction.

    “But what we realized, there's a lot more healing that takes place here, on and off the mountain,” she said.

    Last May, Petty Officer Taylor Morris lost parts of all four limbs in Afghanistan. Today, he’s hitting the Colorado slopes.

    “It’s a great feeling to go out and snowboard on your own,” he said.

    His girlfriend, Danielle Kelly, said the program gives the couple inspiration about their future.

    “This offers us an activity that we'll be able to do years down the road and hopefully one day with our kids,” she said. “We’ll be able to go out and ski.”

    Retired Capt. Melissa Stockwell, who lost part of her leg when she was injured in Baghdad in 2004, is now a veteran of the program.

    “I was pretty wobbly at first, you know, on this the bunny hill.  By the end of the week, I was up and flying down,” she said. “And I never really felt so free in my entire life.”

    More: See Kevin Tibbles's 2004 visit to Vail Veterans 
    Veteran's gift to soldier's girlfriend goes viral 
    Police officer's act of kindness caught on camera 

  • Activists, pols: How did mentally ill killer amass an arsenal?

    By Scott Stump, TODAY contributor

     

    A special weeklong examination of gun violence, gun ownership and gun legislation. NBC News journalists will report across "NBC Nightly News," "TODAY," MSNBC, CNBC, NBCNews.com, and more. The conversation will also extend across NBC News and MSNBC's social media platforms using the hashtag #GunsInUSA.

    In 1995, when Minnesota teen Christian Phillip Oberender killed his mother with a shotgun, he was deemed mentally ill and dangerous by a juvenile court and committed to a psychiatric hospital. Eight years later, at age 22, Oberender was released after living in a halfway house. But in January, 13 guns were discovered in his home, including an AK-47, a Tommy gun and shotguns, according to court documents. He was charged with being a felon in possession of firearms.

    “I think everyone was quite scared to be honest with you,’’ Oberender’s neighbor, Dennis Hilk, told NBC News.

    Police also found a chilling note addressed to Oberender’s deceased mother, according to court documents.

    “I feel the good part of me fade away,’’ he wrote in the note. “I don’t know how long I can hold it in for. The monster want out. I know what happens when he comes out. He only been out one time and someone die.”

    Oberender’s arrest has left gun control activists and local politicians vowing to close the loopholes that allowed Oberender to amass an arsenal.

    “In the polarized world that we're in right now it seems as if you're either for quote-unquote gun control or for addressing the mental health issues when the reality is that we need to reduce gun violence by doing both,’’ Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak told NBC News.

    Oberender, 32, is believed to have obtained a legitimate firearms permit due to a number of snafus, including the fact that the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension had no record of him murdering his mother (an issue that is currently being investigated). Oberender’s attorney did not respond to an interview request by NBC News.

    Police were tipped off to his weapons stash when Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson, who was a young detective 18 years ago when Oberender was sentenced, heard that the man had posted pictures of guns on his Facebook page. Olson went online and found photos of Oberender toting weapons and posts expressing sympathy for the shooters in the school massacres at Columbine High School and Newtown, Conn., according to court documents. A warrant was obtained to search the house, which led to the discovery of Oberender's arsenal.

    “He should not have guns posted on Facebook,’’ Olson told NBC News. “He should not have guns.’’

    Olson shudders to think what could have happened if the name Christian Phillip Oberender had not rung a bell when he heard about the Facebook page.

    “This certainly could have turned out differently for us — for Carver County, for Minnesota, and for America,’’ he said. 

    Read more: 

    'The monster want out': Mentally ill killer amassed huge arsenal, police say

    Obama unveils sweeping new gun control proposals

    Biden: New gun controls likely won't end shootings

    Biden: White House 'determined to take action' on gun reform

     

     

     

     

     

  • Disturbing Navy PSA depicts horrors of 'bath salts'

    Navy officials say a new ad aimed at a designer drug call bath salts was produced after an alarming spike in its use by sailors in 2012, but some are calling the video over the top. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

    By Eun Kyung Kim, TODAY contributor

    The Navy is hoping that a disturbing public service announcement will scare people away from “bath salts” -- deadly chemicals with a seemingly innocent name that are plaguing its sailors.

    The 6-minute PSA, “Bath Salts: It’s Not a Fad, It’s a Nightmare,” is filmed from a first-person perspective. It documents a young man’s bizarre, erratic behavior after snorting the synthetic drug (which is labeled “bath salts” in an attempt to sidestep drug laws, but has no relationship to real bath salts) and the terrifying psychotic visions he experiences. The man reacts to his concerned girlfriend with paranoia and violence, and his hallucinations include seeing everyone turn demonic.

    The video later shows the solider rushed into a hospital, subdued only after the use of restraints and sedation.

    “Bath salts will not only jack up your family and your career, it will jack up your mind and your body too,” explains Lt. George Loeffler, a Naval psychiatry resident, in the PSA.

    Like methamphetamine, bath salts are synthetically concocted in a lab. They are banned by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.  

    “When people are using bath salts, they're not their normal selves. They're angrier. They're erratic. They're violent and they’re unpredictable,” Loeffler says.

    The Navy created the video after dealing with an alarming spike in the use of the designer drug by sailors last year. It began randomly testing soldiers this week, searching specifically for evidence of the use of bath salts.

    The PSA has gone viral since it was released on the Internet two weeks ago. While some have criticized it as a shock video, medical experts say the depiction is realistic.

    “My impression of the PSA was that, I'm sure some people think that it may have been exaggerated, it may be uncomfortable for some people to watch, but it's accurate,” said Mark Ryan, the director of Louisiana's poison center.

    Although bath salts are banned nationally, authorities say there are many variations of the drug and enforcement has been difficult.

    The Navy’s response to combating drug use comes as another military branch deals with an increase in suicides. The Defense Department reported this week that more soldiers took their own lives than died in combat last year. Through November, 177 active-duty soldiers had committed suicide compared to 165 during all of 2011 and 156 in 2010. In all of 2012, 176 soldiers were killed in action.

    More:

    Military cracks down on alcohol abuse

    Soldier suicides outpaced combat deaths in 2012

    Fewer homeless vets in 2012, but advocacy group sees 'alarming' trend

    'Golden-voiced' Ted Williams reveals foundation to help homeless