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Body of another soldier found on post
Young man found in barracks
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The body of another 3rd Infantry Division soldier was found on post Saturday.
Pvt. Michael A. Bloom-quist, 19, was found in his barracks room Saturday night.
Bloomquist was assigned in December to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment in the 3rd ID’s 1st Brigade Combat Team and is reported to be a native of Illinois. He joined the Army in July.
Fort Stewart spokesman Kevin Larson confirmed the discovery of Bloomquist’s body on Wednesday and had few details to report as of Thursday.
“The cause of death is still being investigated,” Larson said.
Bloomquist’s death is the second on post reported by the division in less than 10 days.
On Jan. 9, the body of Spc. William M. Smith was found in his barracks room.
Smith was a National Guard soldier with 1st Battalion, 214th Field Artillery in Waynesboro. He was assigned to the division’s Warrior Transition Unit, where wounded soldiers go to get help with various ailments before returning to active duty or transitioning to civilian-life.
Smith was assigned to the WTU on July 28.
According to military officials, the cause of Smith’s death is also being investigated.
The two deaths, which officials say don’t appear to be related, have taken place within a few weeks of the division ending its 14-month tour in Iraq.
The last of the division, which included members of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, returned home on Jan. 1.
It does not appear, however, that either soldier was in the final wave of redeployments, but the fort’s commanding officer said the events are still significant.
“I mean combat is what we do. But to lose a soldier to anything other than combat is still a tragedy, but it is also something we struggle to come to grips with,” Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo said.

 Both Cucolo and Alan Baroody, a civilian mental health counselor, said stress is something service members will always have to deal with, but Baroody added that the recent findings are not a cause for public alarm.
Baroody is director of the Frasier Counseling Center.
“This has been an ongoing an issue,” Baroody said. “A lot of the soldiers are suffering from combat stress due to the long deployment, but that is why Gen. Cucolo and his staff have been taking this seriously for quite a while.
“Post traumatic stress exists and is affecting our community in many different ways.”
Cucolo said he and his staff handle each case seperately because they know they are dealing with different emotional and psychological matters.  
“We approach each of these things by trying to understand all of the individual circumstances, be-cause we’re dealing with human beings who have a lot of different stressors and issues …,” the two-star general said.
The commander said that is why he stands in front of every one of the fort’s in-coming soldiers and tells them they have to understand how “combat changes all of us.”
“We understand that behavioral health wounds can be healed and so it is a point of moral courage if you ask for help, it’s not a stigma, it’s not a career-ender, it’s a wound that we want to heal,” the general said.

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HPD Reports
crime scene

From Hinesville Police Department reports. Editor’s note: Due to computer issues at the city, reports have been unavailable in recent weeks. They are back. Our thanks to the HPD clerks who provide them. We’re catching up as quickly as possible.

Burglary, etc: A man called 911 on Feb. 27 because he was watching his White Circle home getting burglarized. The man said his alarm system had an app that showed live video on his phone, and he was “viewing three males inside his residence,” as he talked to 911.
Police responded, caught two of them inside the house and found the third guy “hiding behind a tree,” the report said.
Detectives are investigating.

Public indecency: An officer was sent to Lowes around 4:30 p.m. March 12 in reference to a disturbance involving a man and a woman.
The woman, a Lowe’s employee, said she had just got back from her lunch break when she saw the man “looking around at items on a shelf.”
The woman said she asked him if he needed help finding anything and he held up something, then said “I have found everything I need,” the report said. “(he) then placed his arms around (the employee) to hug her and then kissed (her) neck. (She) then moved away from (him) and told him to have a nice day and attempted to walk away from (the man). (He) then began to follow (her), stating ‘I would lick you up and down’ and ‘you better hide in an office.’ (She) then spoke with manager and called 911.’”
The man told police he thought he recognized the woman “and stated to me that he had previously had a relationship with her approximately two years ago. (He) was unable to recall (her) name while on scene.”
The woman told police “she has never seen, nor spoken to (the man) before today.”
The woman was given a case number and told what to do. The man was allowed to leave.

Indecent exposure: A Berkshire Terrace man reported he went outside his house around 6:40 a.m. and “observed a man who appeared to be intoxicated, peeing on his truck and trailer.”
The complainant said the man “fully exposed his penis while he was peeing. When (complainant) asked him to stop the man told him to ‘shut the (bleep) up.’ (Complainant) advised the man he would call police. (Complainant) advised his young son was standing outside during the incident. He said the man got into a 1996 black Buick and drove away, almost hitting cars that were parked in the driveway.”
The complainant said he did not want to press charges, “he said he wanted to report the incident because the man did not stop peeing when he asked him too.”
The complainant said he’d seen the man before “come and go” from a nearby apartment. The officer met with the resident of that apartment, who said the man was a cousin and did not pee on the complainant’s trailer.

Identity theft: A man went to HPD on March 21 to report that when he went to get a driver’s history for a commercial driver’s license, he found several citations on the history that weren’t his. “(He) stated he noticed someone was issued four citations in Arkansas and one citation in Jacksonville, Florida,” and during the time the Arkansas tickets were written he was in locked up in Georgia.
“(He) advised that he was not incarcerated when the citation in Jacksonville, Florida was issued but he was not in Florida at the time. (He) was unable to leave the state of Georgia due to being on felony probation.”
It gets worse.
“(He) told me that he attempted to file his income taxes for the first time ever and he was rejected due to owing the IRS money, $20,000. (He) stated he spoke to a representative for the IRS and he was informed that taxes were filed in his name in 2014 and the return was $1,3000. (He) advised he did not file taxes in 2013 and he was still incarcerated at the time.”
The man then told the officer he thinks his brother “got the citations and filed income taxes using his information. (He) believed his brother obtained his Social Security number and other demographics when he was incarcerated.”
The man said he talked to his brother, who said he paid all the tickets. “(His) brother also told him on a different occasion that he knew his date of birth and (SSN). (He) advised he told his brother that it was not OK to use his name due to him getting his life together and attempting to drive commercial vehicles.”
The guy said he didn’t have his brother’s address. He chose to fill out an identity theft packet.

Simple battery, theft by taking: An officer was sent around 2 a.m. March 20 to the Baymont Inn regarding a disturbance. There, a woman said she was being “grabbed and pulled” by a man when she told him to leave her motel room. She said they began arguing when he accused her of stealing $100.
The man claimed he met the woman on a dating website and when they “started having sex she informed him that it would cost $100.” He told her he wasn’t going to pay her, “got dressed and realized the five $20s in his pants pocket were missing. He accused (her) of stealing his money.”
The officer asked the woman if she stole the man’s money and she replied, “No, I work hard for my money.”
Both were given a case number and told how to get a warrant.

Robbery: A woman called HPD March 15 to report she was home when her estranged husband came to her apartment “and asked her to come outside to talk to him,” a report said.
“She stated that she stepped outside thinking that he was going to be civil, though she recently filed for divorce from him. As she stepped outside, he grabbed her necklace off her neck and then ran down the stairwell and out to the parking lot.”
The woman said he stood by his vehicle a minute, then drove off as police arrived. Officers checked the area but had no luck finding the man.

Burglary: Police were sent to a Malibu Drive address on March 13 regarding missing firearms and ransacked rooms. The homeowners were at work and got home to find handguns and rifles missing, as well as video games.
It appeared the home may have been broken into through the attic. Police found footprints and other evidence, and the case is under investigation.

Recovered stolen trailer: A U-Haul employee was inventorying equipment on March 14 when she discovered a trailer that had been reported stolen in Florida on Dec. 26. “She stated someone had backed the trailer into a parking stall along with the other trailers sometime during the night.”

Theft: In February, the maintenance man at Cypress Bend Mobile Home Park reported that “22 air conditioning unit disconnect boxes were stolen from various lots… He stated he began receiving calls from people that their air conditioning units were not working.”
The boxes contain small pieces of copper. He didn’t know who swiped them, but valued the total at about $341.

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