Keeping The World Safer

No-fly zone in Libya

Northern Pass

UN Security Council acts | Page A4

Whitefield hearing; PUC has questions | Page B6

“There is nothing so powerful as truth”

MANCHESTER EDITION 8

DANIEL WEBSTER

UnionLeader.com

Friday, March 18, 2011

Vol. 148, No. 302 • 48 Pages • 50 Cents

Disks put beachgoers to work Cleaning up: Volunteer effort organized by the Blue Ocean Society and

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the state gathers thousands of plastic disks that flooded out of the Hooksett wastewater treatment plant.

By JASON SCHREIBER

blue rubber gloves, grabbed a trash bag and collected the white mesh disks that washed ashore from Hooksett’s wastewaHAMPTON — Judy Andrews planned ter treatment plant. to spend Thursday relaxing at Hampton “I don’t want kids with their parents Beach, but instead she threw on a pair of finding these this summer,” the 67-yearUnion Leader Correspondent

NEW HAMPSHIRE

GUARD

old Nashua woman said as she pulled another disk from a clump of seaweed and tossed it into her bag.

Andrews joined more than 100 volunteers who combed beaches in Hampton, North Hampton and Seabrook on as part of an organized effort to clean up some of the estimated 4 million to 8 million small disks accidentally released into the Merrimack River when the Hooksett plant overVSee Disks, Page A10

Keeping the world safer for all of us

Testimony: Defense rested after Richard Gribble said his son suffers from “center-of-the universe syndrome.” .

By JAMES A. KIMBLE Union Leader Correspondent

Connections: Troops

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keep in touch with family in New Hampshire through Skype, and in touch with God through religious services.

By SHAWNE K. WICKHAM New Hampshire Sunday News

JOSH GIBNEY/UNION LEADER

NASHUA — The father of Christopher Gribble told jurors how his son has suffered from “center-of-the-universe syndrome” since being arrested for the fatal home invasion in which he helped kill Kimberly Cates and nearly murdered her 11-year-old daughter.

The defense rested its case late Thursday, after nearly six days of testimony, which included Christopher Gribble taking the stand to testify about harboring a desire to kill his mother.

Gribble, 21, claims he is innocent of the Cates murder and of repeatedly stabbing Jaimie Cates during the Oct. 4, 2010, home invasion because he was insane at the time.

Gribble’s father, Richard, told jurors that he has struggled to have a good relationship with his son, even after he was arrested and jailed on

Linda Murphy, top right, works on balance with students, from left, Chris Kelley of Manchester, Curtis Enright of Weare and Alisha Laroussi of Manchester during Murphy’s Olympic Boxing Class Monday night at Murphy’s Gym in Manchester.

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Lt. Col. Richard Oberman of Boscawen is the brigade surgeon for the 197th Fires Brigade.

The title means he’s the chief VSee Kuwait, Page A2

JASON SCHREIBER

Gribble’s father: son offended

Going toe to toe

IN

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait — More than 700 New Hampshire Army National Guardsmen are deployed in Kuwait to support the American military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. And for some, their job is to support their fellow soldiers while they’re here.

Judy Andrews of Nashua collects a small mesh disk from the sand on Hampton Beach to add to the hundreds she and another woman picked up as volunteers came out to clean up the beach.

Power of persistence Male domain: In the bloody world

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VSee Gribble, Page A10

Bill: No annual auto inspections .

of mixed martial arts, Linda Murphy trains prize-winning fighters.

Every two years: House passes the

measure, 234-101, despite Transportation Committee disapproval, but annual emissions test stays in the mix.

By LYNNE SNIERSON New Hampshire Union Leader

By TOM FAHEY State House Bureau Chief

MANCHESTER — A statuesque, beautiful

Abby...............................A6 Business.....................B3-4 Classified ........E3-10, F4-6 Comics/TV .................D6-7 Crossword......................D5 Editorials........................A8 Entertainment ..............B8

Lifestyles .......................A6 Lotteries ........................A4 Notices ................. B7, C1-6 D5 Obituaries ......................B5 Sports ........................D1-4 Weather........................ D8

A Small Prayer

Today’s Chuckle

With You, Lord, we can go that extra mile. Amen

Beauty is in the eye of the mirror holder.

New Hampshire Union Leader ©2011 Union Leader Corp., Manchester, N.H.

annual safety inspections under a bill the House rate bills, cigarettes, passed yesterday, but they education, rail use may still have to report — Pages 3, 7 every year for emissions tests.

House Bill 540 would allow two years between VMore action: Tax

JOSH GIBNEY/UNION LEADER

Linda Murphy, of Murphy’s Gym in Manchester

Today IN NEW HAMPSHIRE’S NEWSPAPER NEW HAMPSHIRE

Gingrich comes for breakfast, stays Former House speaker Newt Gingrich began his daylong political safari in southernmost New Hampshire at the first of 3 St. Patrick’s Day events. VPage A3

BUSINESS

Summer work at Water Country The perennial watering hole for thousands seeking a break from the heat – Water Country in Portsmouth – says it must fill at least 500 seasonal jobs. VPage B4

Pheasant Lane Mall makeover

ing Goods flagship store and a new look inside and out, all designed to give shoppers a reason to keep coming back. VPage B3

WORLD

Americans look to get out of Japan The United States on Thursday began evacuating Americans from Japan amid fears that four tsunamidamaged nuclear reactors may be closer to a core meltdown. VPage A4

SPORTS

Derry skater is Hockey East star

Senior UNH forward Paul Thompson of Derry was Nearly $10 million in renovations are planned for the named Hockey East Player of the Year and a Hobey Nashua mall, including new restaurants, a Dick’s Sport- Baker top 10 finalist. VPage D1

VSee Inspection, Page A10

NCHEST A

ER

REGULAR FEATURES

VSee Murphy, Page A10

CONCORD — Car owners would be able to skip

M

SHAWNE WICKHAM/SUNDAY NEWS

Lt. Col Richard Oberman of Boscawen examines a patient, Sgt. 1st Class Neal Mitchel, who like many of the soldiers at Camp Arifjan has had a nasty cough for weeks.

blonde with a knockout smile stepped into the octagon one reVRing master: Kevin cent night after a local MacDonald is keeping mixed martial arts the peace as an MMA (MMA) fight. Nothing referee — Page D1 unusual there; attractive women regularly stroll in and out of MMA octagons and boxing rings.

NH

03108

U S A

Today’s Letters: Page A9

SPORTS

High school hoopla The Division I match-up involves topseeded Bishop Guertin of Nashua and secondseeded Trinity of Manchester in an all-Catholic high school finale.

VPage D1

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Page A2 • NEW HAMPSHIRE UNION LEADER • Friday, March 18, 2011

From Page One

Kuwait Continued From Page A1 Serious combat injuries But it’s worth it, Oberman would be unlikely to come here; will tell his boy someday. “Since instead, the wounded would I was 15, I wanted to take care of likely be evacuated to Germany, people.

Oberman said.

“For me it’s a chance to take care of people, take care of our Bad air soldiers, and to be able to go Right now, there’s a nasty back home and have that concough going around base; the nection to the soldiers.” soldiers call it “Kuwaiti crud.”

Some think it’s from the dust, Lifelong ambitions He’s loved emergency servicdiesel fumes and air pollution from burn pits used to inciner- es since he was a kid. “It was the whole red light, siren thing.” ate garbage.

Oberman enlisted as an Army Oberman wanted to come here. Last time the 197th de- medic in 1988 and went to liployed, in 2004-05, his boss, censed practical nursing school the state surgeon, went with the through the Army. He went on to get his bachelor’s degree in unit. “I felt left out,” he said.

This time, 70 percent of the nursing and joined the National full-time Guard staff was de- Guard in 1995.

When he first arrived here, ployed, he said. “I didn’t want to Oberman said, he was nervous be left out again.”

But he’s giving up a lot to be about the kinds of things they here. His son Ryan is just 18 warned about in training. “Drivmonths old, and Oberman has ing around, every piece of trash missed important milestones on the road, you think it’s a in his little boy’s life. He talks bomb to blow you up.”

And trash is everywhere along to his wife Beth and their son on Skype, and marvels at how the highways here, blowing across the desert. much he’s grown.

After being here four months, “I left him two days before his first birthday. He couldn’t walk, Oberman said, “I think it’s alhe couldn’t talk. Now he’s run- ways a potential threat, but I ning around the house. He’s don’t get as nervous.”

Base security is tight and calling me Daddy.”

“He’s an amazing little man multilayered, the walls are high and thick, and a Quick Reaction already.”

He’ll be home on leave in Force made up of Rhode Island April. “You always worry, when I Guardsmen patrols the perimsee him, will he recognize me?” eter.

He’s glad he came with his PRICE BUSTER SPECIALS soldiers so he can better un$ derstand what they’ve gone through when they get back, Oberman said. “I at least know about being away from home.

That sounds kind of weird, but you want to know what it’s like to not have certain things for a while.”

gade.

The title means he’s the chief medical officer for the brigade; Oberman actually has a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

“I play a doctor on deployment,” he quipped.

He’s responsible for the health and welfare of all 2,500 brigade members, including the Guardsmen from Rhode Island, Michigan and West Virginia who have joined the New Hampshire folks on the mission.

“I’m here to protect and help soldiers,” he said.

Oberman enlisted in the Army as a medic in 1988, and joined the Guard in 1995. Back home, he works for the Guard full time as the deputy state surgeon and is chief of the Penacook Rescue Squad, which covers Boscawen and Canterbury.

Oberman, 40, has five physician assistants under him who are assigned to the five camps where brigade members are stationed. Three are from New Hampshire: Capt. Dan O’Brien of Manchester, who’s at Camp Virginia; Lt. Donald Huntington at Camp Buehring; and Capt.

Brian Fisher at Camp Patriot on Kuwait Naval Base.

In addition to his brigade responsibilities, Oberman offered to cover nursing shifts at a Navy medical center at Camp Arifjan after he found out it was shorthanded.

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eral for the 197th Brigade. His office provides legal services for the soldiers of the brigade both here and at home.

And when soldiers get in trouble, it’s the JAG office that determines the appropriate punishment under the military justice system.

Dennehy has been in the Army Reserves since 2003. “One of the 9/11 folks,” he describes himself.

Indeed, there are many here who joined — or rejoined — the military after the attacks.

Dennehy remembers watching the television coverage that day and saying, “The world’s not safe anymore.”

In addition to joining the Reserves, Dennehy went to work for the Department of Homeland Security in upstate New York. But his family missed New Hampshire, so they moved back six years ago. He transferred to the New Hampshire Army National Guard in 2009 and joined the 197th Fires Brigade for this historic deployment, the largest for the Guard since World War II. The JAG office is responsible for prosecuting misconduct under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. There’s a civilian courtroom here at Camp Arifjan and a jail facility on base.

But they also provide legal assistance for brigade members on everything from landlord troubles back home to signing wills and powers of attorney.

Dennehy also provides legal counsel to the brigade commander.

He left a lot behind, including his 12 children, ages 2 to 22. “It’s very difficult for them,” he said.

“It’s difficult for me, of course, but I’m more worried about them.”

But they understand what he’s doing, he said. “They know our country’s at war. Folks should not forget the fact that there are people trying to kill us.

Someone has to step forward.

“In my case, it was me, my son and my future son-in-law.”

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His son Matthew just returned from deployment to Afghanistan with Charlie Company.

His future son-in-law is Spc. Joseph Vicinanzo of Concord, who just happens to be a paralegal with the 197th, working right here in Dennehy’s office.

“He’s marrying my daughter Amanda,” he said.

As it happens, Dennehy used to work for young Vicinanzo’s father, David, in the U.S. Attorney’s office back in Concord.

The wedding is set for May 21 in Concord. Dennehy plans to be home on leave to walk his eldest daughter down the aisle.

Here’s what he wants the folks at home to know about what the 197th is doing here: “We live in a violent, tumultuous world.

What we’re doing is our little part to keep the world safer.”

So why him? “Someone has to do it,” he said. Besides, he said with a smile, “I’m good at this.”

percent of brigade members — including those from the other three states — will be unemployed when they go home.

Col. Peter Corey, the brigade commander, said he’s looking into whether Guard members can extend to another tour if they need a job and want to stay here.

A lot can change over a yearlong deployment, and just as they have in past wars, some soldiers will get “Dear John” letters while they’re away, Veinotte said. Except these days, “Nobody gets a letter.”

“Probably the best-case scenario for that awful experience is Skype or on the phone, but it can be an e-mail,” he said.

“They don’t want to believe it at first. Then they get angry.

Then they get on with it.”

With brigade soldiers going off on leave, Veinotte likes to warn them that things at home have changed. He likens it to trying to get into a canoe that’s been paddling along without you; you’re likely to tip it over, he said.

“Be nice to your family,” he tells them. “Things have changed.”

There’s been a lot of support for the soldiers from back home; Veinotte said folks are constantly sending stuff in care of his office for the service members, everything from playing cards to toiletries.

The truth is the soldiers can get all that here, Veinotte said.

But he said the Guard actually encourages those who want to support the soldiers to donate to the Chaplain’s Emergency Relief Fund, which provides emergency financial help for military families.

Soldiers stationed in Kuwait have access to Internet and cell phones; they can call and even see their families on Skype. But Veinotte said, “The communication is a blessing and a curse.”

“For the family, it brings the proximity of the theater to their living rooms, and that can be a bad thing because of what’s going on,” he said.

On the other side, soldiers here learn quickly about things going on at home but often can’t do anything to help.

For instance, he said, “I’m not thrilled my wife is shoveling all the snow she’s had to deal with. It doesn’t make me feel good.”

That’s the hardest part of the deployment, Veinotte said, “being away from my family.”

But he said, “The best part is I get to be here with my soldiers. I didn’t have to do what I’ve had to do for years: Put them on a plane and say goodbye.”

“You want to be with your soldiers. And your soldiers are here.”

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Major Steven Veinotte of Campton has seen the truth of that old adage that there are no atheists in foxholes.

“I think that’s natural,” he said. “It’s part of human nature, when the pressure gets ratcheted up, you tend to ask God for more things.”

As the brigade chaplain for the 197th Fires Brigade, Veinotte oversees a staff of chaplains and assistants who minister to the spiritual and emotional needs of the soldiers here in Kuwait.

“It’s my job to make sure they’re taken care of,” he said.

There are six ministry teams stationed at all five Army camps here in Kuwait Veinotte is based at Camp Arifjan, where there are two chapels and a small annex, a quiet room with just 32 chairs where people can spend some quiet time away from the coming heat and constant dust.

There’s a Roman Catholic priest who says Mass here six days a week. There’s a Muslim prayer service Fridays at noon, a Jewish Shabbat service is held Friday evenings and the Seventh-Day Adventists meet in the annex Saturday mornings. On Sundays, there are traditional Protestant, contemporary, Latter-day Saints, Church of Christ and gospel services.

Soldiers stationed here provide the church music. “A lot of services have a fairly substantial praise band of varying degrees of ability, but they all have fun,” said Veinotte, who used to be pastor at Campton Baptist Church.

Looking ahead An important part of Veinotte’s work here is counseling soldiers about family troubles.

And he said, “A lot of times there’s financial stuff that gets woven in.”

“We’re a cross-section of society and a lot of folks are struggling,” he said. “A lot of our folks aren’t going back to a job, or they’re going back to a shaky situation.”

Brigade headquarters estimates between 22 and 30

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The “NH Guard in Kuwait” Union Leader and UnionLeader.com series is made possible in part with the assistance of Next Step Orthotics and Prosthetics and of DEKA Research.

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