It was the annual Christmas event. The time of year for joy and celebrating. Yet, Joseph Haia felt trapped at the event in the Cardinals Stadium. Thousands of people were surrounding Haia and his wheelchair. “Too many people around, too many things moving faster than I could,” Haia said. “It was difficult. The thought of…
PHOENIX — Gov. Doug Ducey started this week by weighing in on the national gun debate with a press conference that laid out his goals for looking at background checks. In a somewhat contradictory set of statements, Ducey claimed that the law shouldn’t prevent a grandpa from passing down a shotgun to a grandson, but…
In 1966, Wes Ricks, then 19, was a river rat plying the waters of Vietnam while serving in the Navy. “We were getting shot at all the time,” said Ricks, now a professional musician from Phoenix. Ricks knew what he wanted to do when he returned home. “When I was going into Indochina to serve over…
Tucson’s Fernando Galvan served two tours in Iraq for the Special Services Unit in 2007 and 2008. Once he returned home the nightmares began. Next came the paranoia and anxiety in large crowds, common symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. “In Iraq they used to hide bombs in dead animals on the side of the…
