It now appears an Army Captain from the 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley died in Afghanistan earlier this month from natural causes, although that is not yet official.

Just one day before the division assumed its current mission in Afghanistan, they began planning for the funeral of Captain Michael Braden.

The following news release was issued by the Public Affairs Office of the Big Red One:

 

 

Defenders pay respect to fallen comrade

With less than a month spent in Afghanistan, the Soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division’s headquarters battalion have already said goodbye to one of their own.

Capt. Michael Braden, an officer with the battalion’s Signal Company, was found unresponsive in his bed, April 18. One day before the division assumed its mission here, it began planning its first tribute to a fallen Soldier.

The official autopsy is not complete, but it is thought that Braden died in his sleep of natural causes related to his epileptic past.

A week after Braden’s passing, more than a hundred of his friends and comrades came to honor his life at a memorial service at the Enduring Faith Chapel on Bagram Airfield.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christopher Hall, Braden’s friend and co-worker, gave a speech during the service.

“I have known Capt. Braden since he came to the team in June of 2009,” said Hall. “I had the privilege of deploying to Iraq with him, where he worked hard to ensure every Soldier had water, electricity and everything they needed to be comfortable.”

“Here, he loved the information assurance section and was just getting to know the flow of our duties,” said Hall. “Although Capt. Braden knew that he had a medical condition he was working through, he still did everything he could to deploy with us and stay part of the team.”

“He would always hang out with us after a long day, because he loved to be a part of the [team]. That was where he was comfortable,” said Hall.

Hall also spoke about Braden’s personal side, the side where he was a husband, a son and a new father. Braden and his wife recently adopted a child, two-year-old James.

“It goes without saying that he was a family man,” said Hall. “I consider myself fortunate to have seen the caliber of the caring person that he was.”

Braden joined the Army in 2004 after graduating from Slippery Rock University with a bachelor’s in information systems management. He has served in positions ranging from platoon leader to company commander, but specialized as an information assurance officer in the division’s information management section.

His previous deployments include Operation Enduring Freedom-Qatar in 2005 and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2009.

Braden’s awards include the Bronze Star, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal and the Parachutist Badge.

This week he was bestowed the Gold Order of Mercury, which honors any signal-corps Soldier who dies during deployment.

“It is our honor to pay respect to Michael’s life,” said the chaplain nearing the conclusion of the service. “We are grateful for his loyalty and courage, for his protection of our freedom, and for his commitment to his country and the U.S. Army.”

“May he walk with God now, and may he rest in peace.”

A 21-gun-salute followed the final prayer at Braden’s service.

The memorial ended as his fellow Soldiers, marching side-by-side in twos, presented their final salutes to an arrangement of the captain’s soldierly effects, a display of his rifle, boots, combat helmet and ID-tags symbolic of his life and sacrifice as a U.S. Soldier.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) – Nearly a year after the Army Corps of Engineers intentionally breached the Birds Point levee in southeast Missouri, corps officials say the decision may have saved billions of dollars in damages.

Farmers in the floodway are still assessing costs. The Food and Agriculture Research Policy Institute estimates that crop losses alone amounted to $85 million, and a broader economic impact exceeded $156 million.

The corps had authority to intentionally breach the levee to relieve pressure from the flooding Mississippi River, in part to save nearby Cairo, Ill. The breach on May 2 flooded 130,000 acres of Missouri farmland.

The corps says the decision prevented more than $112 billion in damages along the Mississippi River and its tributaries.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – Authorities say a 5-year-old heart patient who was taken from a St. Louis hospital by his father has been found safe just outside Chicago.

An Alsip, Ill., police dispatcher who declined to give her name because she wasn’t authorized to talk to the media said Wednesday that Porter Stone was found at hospital there and the father, 33-year-old Jeffery Stone, was in custody.

A missing child alert was issued after the boy was taken from the hospital Tuesday.

St. Louis police Capt. Jim Moran said the boy’s father didn’t have legal custody.

Porter was being treated for cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart muscle. A doctor said his condition is serious and he only had about a day’s worth of medication when he was taken.

A Buchanan County Detective was honored Tuesday for his work for the Cyber Crimes Task Force which resulted in the successful prosecution of a Danish citizen exploiting an 11-year-old Missouri girl online.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri David M. Ketchmark presented the Crystal Kipper & Ali Kemp Memorial Award to Detective Thomas Cates of the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department.

Cates was the lead agent in his first federal case when he investigated the exploitation and extortion of the Buchanan County, Mo., victim by Kai Lundstroem Pedersen, 61, a citizen of Denmark.

When Pedersen traveled from his home in Denmark to New York during the investigation, Cates discovered his travel plans and went to arrest him and bring him back to Missouri to face federal charges.

Pedersen pleaded guilty and was sentenced on Feb. 2, 2012, to 30 years in federal prison without parole.

According to Ketchmark, Cates was contacted by the Missouri victim’s family after Pedersen communicated with their daughter over the Internet, deceived her into believing he was a teenage boy, then exploited and extorted her.

After meeting with the family and gaining their trust, Cates used the victim’s email and Facebook accounts to covertly engage directly with Pedersen. When he learned that Pedersen was engaging in this activity from Denmark, he contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations.

Pedersen admitted that in July 2010 he instructed the victim to engage in sexually explicit conduct that he recorded and saved as a digital video on his computer. This video, as well as screen capture images from the video, were later edited and distributed to others, including family and friends of the victim. Pedersen distributed the images and video over the Internet via file-sharing software.

Pedersen contacted the victim using various aliases through email and chat programs from July to September 2010 in an effort to convince her to engage again in sexually explicit conduct via video web chat.

Pedersen threatened to disseminate sexually explicit images of her over the Internet if she did not comply with his demands. For example, on Aug. 15, 2010, Pedersen used nine different aliases on Facebook to contact the victim.

 

“Despite the complexities due to the international aspects of this investigation, Det. Cates performed superbly in moving the case forward and in constantly remaining in touch with the victim and her family,” Ketchmark said. “His willingness to cross over and provide resources and information to other agencies was likewise of great assistance in tracking down this defendant. But for Det. Cates’s aggressive and timely work from the outset of this investigation, it is unlikely that we would have ever caught the defendant in this case.”

The Missouri Conservation Department Confirmed Tuesday a mountain lion sighting in Northwest Missouri.

A mountain lion was caught on a trail camera April 2^nd in Grundy County.

It was confirmed to be a mountain lion earlier this week. A Wisconsin man who leases hunting right on a property in Southwestern Grundy County reported the picture. It’s the 29^th confirmed sighting since 1994 and the third sighting so far this year.

Mountain lions were once native to the state.  Evidence indicates that sightings in recent decades are due to young male mountain lions dispersing from western states and wandering into Missouri, said Rex Martensen, an MDC wildlife damage biologist and a member of the Response Team.  MDC has confirmed no evidence of a breeding population in Missouri.

Confirmation of a mountain lion sighting is made when there is verifiable physical evidence such as hair, scat, tracks, photos, video, a dead cougar or remains from a mountain lion feeding on prey.

Mountain lions are naturally shy of humans and generally pose little danger to people, Martensen said, even in states with thriving breeding populations. Although mountain lions are protected by law, Missouri’s Wildlife Code does allow people to protect themselves and their property if they feel threatened.

A teenager is charged with setting another teen on fire in Andrew County earlier this month.

Seventeen year old Joseph D Gardner was charged Monday.

He allegedly threatened to murder the child and his family if the 13 year old victim told anyone about the incident.

The victim suffered 1st and 2nd degree burns on his face, right arm and in his nose and throat.

According to court records, Gardner allegedly watched and laughed.

He is charged with first degree assault and is held on a $150,000 bond.

 

 

A woman and her young child were taken to Heartland Regional Medical Center Tuesday morning after the vehicle they were traveling in rammed into a utility pole shortly after 9 a.m.

The accident happened at about 19th and Highly Street, near the St Joseph School District’s Webster Learning Center.

 

Officers at the scene say the youngster was not hurt. The mother complained of chest pains, which officials say can be fairly common when a vehicle’s airbags deploy. Official word on their condition was not available, but investigators did not believe the injuries were life threatening.

Officials say the woman may have suffered some kind of health condition just before losing control of her vehicle.

The impact caused significant damage to the light pole. By 10 a.m. utility workers were restringing the lines and replacing the pole.