BY CATHY DYSON / THE FREE LANCE–STAR

Walter Parker was describing a moment from almost 50 years ago, when a friend and fellow soldier was shot and killed, right beside him, in Vietnam.

Losing his buddy that way—and having to kill others in a war zone—has haunted him for life. But these days, he has a new friend to help him cope.

Jackson, a 2-year old golden retriever and trained psychiatric service dog, seems to understand the anxiety Parker feels and helps alleviate it.

“I feel comfortable going anyplace because I have this dog as security,” Parker said. “I think this dog has saved my life.”

Parker had struggled with flashbacks for decades, long before they were linked to post-traumatic stress disorder.

In his day, people called it being shell-shocked—and didn’t consider it a medical condition.

Parker, who’s 68 and lives in Caroline County, had suppressed as much as he could from his two years in Vietnam, which included being in Saigon during the Tet Offensive and later in DaNang.

Vietnam War veteran Walter Parker, 68, spends time with his psychiatric therapy dog, Jackson, at his Caroline County home. Parker suffers from PTSD and had extreme flashbacks, which stopped once he got Jackson as his dog. (PETER CIHELKA/THE FREE LANCE-STAR)

All those memories came rushing back in 2010, after he suffered symptoms from a late-stage case of Lyme disease. His brain was affected so severely, he didn’t recognize his own family for a while.

The fallout from Lyme encephalopathy led Parker’s wife, Susan, to search for a therapy dog. The couple got Jackson in July from paws4people, an organization based in Wilmington, N.C., that taps into the “special powers” of dogs to help children, veterans and senior citizens.

Jackson has been assigned to Parker since April and has become his “wingman,” said Parker’s youngest son, Michael.

“I don’t feel like anything bad is going to happen,” Parker said. “This dog has got my back.”

THE LOSSES OF WAR

In Vietnam, Parker became good friends with a Mexican soldier named Victor. The two shared foxholes and went through terrible gunfire when they delivered supplies to other Army units.

Parker felt like he was a member of Victor’s family. Victor had flown to Hawaii to see his wife after she gave birth to his daughter, and Parker enjoyed photos of the happy family.

Two months later, Victor was shot—right beside Parker—and didn’t make it. Before he died, he begged Parker to take his personal effects to his wife and tell her what had happened.

As Parker described the moment, he started to tremble, and his voice dropped to a whisper. He was sitting in his living room, but his mind had taken him back to the jungles of Southeast Asia.

His son sensed what was happening and called Jackson over. The dog sat in front of Parker and looked into his master’s face.

Susan Parker lifted Jackson onto the couch so the dog and his soft fur covered Parker’s lap.

Parker rubbed Jackson’s belly and stroked his silky ears. Both his hands were wrapped around the dog who had been rolling on his back on the floor moments earlier, but was perfectly still in Parker’s lap.

A few minutes later, Parker was able to talk again.

“This dog’s eyes literally go down into my heart, and it’s like he’s listening to what I’m feeling,” Parker said. “I did not understand how this dog was going to do what they said he could do, but there’s something about this that is really real. I can feel something different.”

IMPROVED QUALITY OF LIFE

Susan and Walter Parker have been married for 20 years, and she’s his third wife. Like his first two spouses, she’s heard her husband moan during his sleep and seen the way he shook and cried during thunderstorms or when helicopters passed over on their way to nearby Fort A.P. Hill.

His family knew how to work around his triggers. They didn’t walk up behind him and startle him. At restaurant tables, they let him sit facing the door so he could see who approached. They had headphones handy for him to wear during storms.

Parker never got violent during the episodes. Instead, he became frightened of everything around him.

The bout of Lyme disease magnified his disorder.

“That was the scariest thing I ever saw in my life,” said his son, who’s 19, and had to help keep tabs on his father because he was prone to running away when something scared him. “We don’t have to go through that anymore because he’s with Jackson.”

The paws4people program matches veterans—most from recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan—with dogs that help them adjust to loud noises or being in large groups of people. Some of the dogs are trained by prisoners in five facilities in West Virginia.

Parker and Jackson were matched in April and went through training before Jackson came home to Caroline.

The Parkers didn’t have to pay any fees associated with Jackson and his training, which total about $35,000.

But they are asked to pay it forward and raise money for another veteran—or disabled child or senior citizen—to get a dog.

The Parkers are having a fundraiser from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday at Old Mill Park.

“For what this dog has done for Walter and his family, that’s the least we can do,” Susan Parker said.

Her husband added: “If I can help one person feel the quality of life improve like I have, I want to do that.”

PROUD TO HAVE SERVED

Parker got full disability from the government after the Lyme disease. He works two days a week in the lawn and garden section of the Central Park Walmart, so he can get out of the house and have contact with people.

He sees a Veterans Administration counselor every three months.

He continues to have flashbacks, even with Jackson, but his wife said he hasn’t had to be medicated in recent months. The medicine usually knocked her husband out for hours.

She said the difference between her husband’s behavior, before and after Jackson, is like night and day.

Parker even started wearing a Vietnam veteran hat—something he never did before.

“I’m proud I served my country,” he said. “I am hurt by the outcome and how it turned out, but you can’t keep that in your heart all these years.”

Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425

cdyson@freelancestar.com

BY ROBYN SIDERSKY / THE FREE LANCE–STAR

The Caroline County School Board voted, 3-2, Monday night to censure one of its members, Mary Anderson, who represents the Western Caroline district.

The censure contains no punishment. A censure is an expression of formal disapproval.

Reedy Church School Board Member Mack Wright Jr. made the motion and read a resolution to censure Anderson based on comments she made to the media following an incident in which, she and Bowling Green Supervisor Jeff Sili say, they were kicked out of Bowling Green Elementary by Superintendent Greg Killough last month.

School Board members Shawn Kelley, Wright and George Spaulding voted in favor of the censure, and members Nancy Carson and Tinka Harris voted against it.

Rebecca Broaddus, the clerk of the School Board, said Anderson did not have a vote, according to Robert’s Rules of Order.

The resolution said, in part, that Anderson’s “initial description of this incident and her behavior is not consistent with the standards expected of a Caroline County School Board member.”

Anderson and Sili were at the elementary school for National School Lunch Week when, they later claimed, Killough asked them to leave.

Sili and Anderson had similar recollections of the incident—Killough asking them to leave and telling them they were not allowed to be at the school.

Killough, however, in an interview at the time, said he didn’t tell them to leave the building.

What seemed to irritate the School Board members who voted in favor of the censure was that it appeared that Anderson spoke on behalf of the board about the incident in an interview with The Free Lance–Star.

Both Kelley and Wright told Kelley that she did not speak for them.

The comments that Anderson made to The Free Lance–Star that upset the School Board members were in an Oct. 15 story about the incident.

According to that story, Anderson noted that when the School Board members were first elected, Killough told them that if they wanted to visit the schools, they should let him know and he would go with them.

But Anderson said none of the School Board members followed that instruction.

“We have been diligently not doing that,” she said in that October interview.

After the vote Monday night, Anderson said she regretted the incident.

“It’s really unfortunate that this has gotten blown out of proportion, and what happened was, when the press asked Dr. Killough what had happened at the school, all he had to say was ‘I lost my temper, I said some things I didn’t mean, and I regret it,’” she said. “End of story, end of issue. It’s the cover up that’s keeping this story alive, and I regret it.”

In discussing the resolution, Wright said he did not want anyone else speaking on his behalf.

After the meeting, in an interview, Anderson said it was never her intent to speak on behalf of the others on the board. “I did not intend to, I was not speaking for all of them,” she said.

She said the censure was a result of three people being very mad at her. “It doesn’t bother me at all,” she said. “They just needed a venue to express their anger.”

Early in the meeting, a handful of Caroline County residents spoke in support of Anderson. The censure came near the end of the meeting.

Robyn Sidersky: 540/374-5413

rsidersky@freelancestar.com

BY PORTSIA SMITH / THE FREE LANCE–STAR

A Ruther Glen man accused of taking part in the armed robbery of a Caroline County deli is in police custody.

Jalean Deron Gilliens, 20, turned himself in to police on Sunday, said Lt. Travis Nutter of the Caroline Sheriff’s Office.

Nutter said a masked gunman entered the Pineview Grocery & Deli off U.S. 301 in Ruther Glen through the back door around 6:15 p.m. Thursday and demanded cash from the register.

After one of the two store clerks gave the man an undisclosed amount of money, the gunman ran out of the back of the store. A customer was also in the store, Nutter said.

No shots were fired and no one was injured, he said.

Deputies responded to the store and interviewed the people there.

Less than six hours later, Investigative Sgt. Mac Ellet obtained an arrest warrant for 22-year-old Deion Tyreese Green of Ruther Glen, who investigators said was the customer in the store during the robbery.

After an overnight search for Green, he turned himself in Friday morning, Nutter said.

Arrest warrants were also issued for Gilliens and a 17-year-old boy believed to be the gunman.

Detectives say they believe that Green was acting as a customer and his role in the robbery was to distract the store clerks while the armed juvenile entered the rear of the store.

Gilliens is believed to have been the getaway driver and acted as a lookout, Nutter said. He said the vehicle used during the robbery was located and contained evidence connected to the robbery.

The juvenile was taken into custody Friday morning at a home in Ruther Glen and was transported to Merrimac Juvenile Detention Center near Williamsburg and held without bond.

The trio is each charged with armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Green and Gilliens are being held without bond at Pamunkey Regional Jail.

Portsia Smith: 540/374-5419

psmith@fredericksburg.com

BY ROBYN SIDERSKY / THE FREE LANCE–STAR

The Caroline County Board of Supervisors on Thursday will review a request to allow another mine along the U.S. 17 corridor.

Maryland-based Chaney Enterprises is asking the county for a special-exception permit to operate a sand and gravel mine at Moss Neck Plantation, at the intersection of U.S. 17 and Burma Road.

The company wants to mine 544 out of 1,209 acres, which is about 45 percent of the land.

The Planning Commission recommended approval of the mine this summer, though two commissioners voted against it.

Representatives from the company said only about 30 acres at a time will be used for mining.

Of those 30 acres, 10 would be used for mining, 10 for preparation and 10 for reclamation.

When the mining is completed, in 10 to 20 years, there will be two ponds, 38 acres and 96 acres in size, in addition to one already there.

When the Planning Commission held its public hearing, nearly 20 people spoke on both sides of the issue.

The applicant already received approval to subdivide the land into two parcels: about 912 acres and 292 acres.

One of the impacts the mine will have on the county is added traffic to U.S. 17, which is considered a major artery in the county.

In the memo from the Planning Commission to the supervisors, it is noted that the Sheriff’s Office is not in favor of the mine.

The Sheriff’s Office listed concerns about truck traffic on the two-lane road and the potential traffic hazard of trucks entering and leaving the site.

Fort A.P. Hill, which is adjacent to the site of the proposed mine, has cited concerns about additional trucks, among other things.

A review from the Virginia Department of Transportation was not included in the memo.

The land is zoned agricultural preservation and the proposed mine requires a special-exception permit.

Along with the Planning Commission’s recommended approval, a list of conditions was also included.

Another mine was recently approved by the Board of Supervisors. The mine is planned for 200 acres near Frog Level Road at the King William border, in the Bowling Green district. It will be operated by Aggregate Industries.

Thursday’s meeting begins at 6 p.m., but public hearings don’t begin until 7:30 p.m., according to the agenda released by the county. Meetings take place at the Community Services Center, off U.S. 301, just south of Bowling Green.

Robyn Sidersky 540/374-5413; rsidersky@freelancestar.com

BY ROBYN SIDERSKY / THE FREE LANCE–STAR

After a public hearing that lasted for hours Thursday night, the Caroline County Board of Supervisors approved a special-exception permit for a sand and gravel mine near historic Moss Neck Manor, off U.S. 17.

A special-exception permit is required because there is no mining allowed by right in the county, and the land in northern Caroline where Chaney Enterprises wants to mine is zoned rural preservation.

The Board voted 4–2 to approve the mine, with supervisors Jeff Black and Jeff Sili voting against.

About 45 people commented on the mine during the public hearing, with 29 in favor, 11 against and five who spoke but did not indicate if they were for or against.

A packed auditorium full of Caroline County residents and people in support of the Silver Cos., owner of the land, and Chaney Enterprises, the applicant who will do the mining, turned out for the public hearing.

Chaney asked to use 544 of the 1,209 acres to mine for sand and gravel, using 30 acres at a time.

The company has 23 facilities in Maryland and four in Virginia.

They propose to leave two ponds on the property when they are finished.

The mining operation will bring 25 jobs in the first five years, and 49 jobs in years six through 10, Chaney representatives told the board.

It will bring up to 200 trucks per day to U.S. 17, coming and going from the site. This was one of the major concerns from the board and from some of the speakers.

The Virginia Department of Transportation has not weighed in yet on the proposal.

Kyle Murray, the project manager for Chaney, said there are planned improvements for the area of U.S. 17 where the mine will go. There will be a 720-foot acceleration lane toward Port Royal, a 435-foot deceleration lane and a 1,000-foot bypass lane.

In the public comment portion, which followed Chaney’s presentation, adjacent property owners to the proposed mine had mixed opinions—some said they would have no problem, and others said it would be a disruption and felt uncomfortable with the mine going in.

Lt. Col. David Meyer, the commander of Fort A.P. Hill, which is just a mile from the proposed mine site, expressed concerns with the mine’s proximity to the U.S. Army installation and its training.

He said his principal concern is the impact on training areas that rely heavily on darkness.

Maj. Scott Moser spoke for the Caroline County Sheriff’s Office and expressed concerns about the impact the mine will have on traffic and public safety.

Others who spoke against cited the county’s Comprehensive Plan, of which mining is not a part.

The land lies in a resource-sensitive overlay district, which means it has more environmental protections.

In explaining his opposition, Black said his biggest concern is the truck traffic that the mine will bring.

Sili said allowing the mine “sets a dangerous precedent.”

Thomas, who voted in favor of the mine, noted that he has voted for and against mines in the Port Royal District in the past.

Taylor, in whose district the proposed mine would be located, voted in favor because he thinks the positive will outweigh the negative.

Robyn Sidersky 540/374-5413

rsidersky@freelancestar.com

MINE PETITION QUESTIONED

In addition to packing the auditorium Thursday for the public hearing about a proposed mine off U.S 17, supporters of a proposed mine in Caroline County turned a petition with 1,100 names.

But the validity of the petition was called into question when at least five speakers told the Board of Supervisors that their names were added without their permission.

Even Wayne Acors, who represents the Madison District on the board, said his name was added but the address used was wrong. He emphasized that he did not sign any petition.

It’s unclear who started the petition, but the Chaney Enterprises representatives said that it was not part of their application and they didn’t want the supervisors to take it into consideration. Chaney wants to operate the mine.

The supervisors agreed that it would not sway their decision, but it is part of the public record.

Maj. Scott Moser, with the Caroline County Sheriff’s Office, said they would launch a criminal investigation into who fraudulently added the names. Forgery is a class 5 felony under the state code.

Board Chairman Floyd Thomas said the county would put the petition on the county’s website and anyone could go through it to see if their name was fraudulently added, as well.

Supervisor Jeff Sili said at least 30 people have told him they did not sign the petition, and he found many names of deceased people on the list, as well.

Anyone who believes their name has been fraudulently added to the petition should contact the Sheriff’s Office.

-Robyn Sidersky

BY ROBYN SIDERSKY / THE FREE LANCE–STAR

The front of Caroline High School will move closer to State Route 207, now that the Board of Supervisors has approved the plans.

It’s part of $20 million worth of renovations planned for the school, which now sits 118 feet away from the road.

The architect wants to move the front 43 feet closer. Supervisors had to approve a special-exception permit for the work.

The area in front of the school will be similar to the front now—with a parking lot and grassy area between the building and highway. The renovation to the front of the building will include a new administration area and library and will make the school more secure.

When the Planning Commission reviewed the request, it asked school officials to place a barrier between the parking lot and road.

The supervisors had several questions about the request, including why it was not brought up earlier. Their main concern was safety and having the building closer to the road.

School officials agreed to build the barriers, but told supervisors it would be too costly and time-consuming to redesign the building so it would not be closer to the road. The supervisors asked that the Planning Commission review the plans for the barriers.

Robyn Sidersky 540/374-5413

rsidersky@freelancestar.com

BY ROBYN SIDERSKY / THE FREE LANCE–STAR

The Port Royal Town Council has come up with a plan for the future of its water system.

At a meeting last week, Vice Mayor Jim Heimbach proposed a two-track plan that keeps the town’s options open. For now, the town will retain ownership of the water system.

For six months, a committee made up of town residents will identify planning and construction grants and loans.

Alex Long will be the grant administrator and will have the authority to represent the town. He’ll only need council approval if he needs to spend money.

At the end of the six months, if grant funds have not been actually received by the town and the privatization option is determined to be feasible, the town will no longer pursue grants and loans.

In the meantime, the town will work on hiring an attorney who can act on behalf of the town. The town attorney will advise the town of its legal responsibilities, and help with the process of preparing for privatization, if necessary.

That person would advise the town on signing a contract with a private company, such as Aqua Virginia.

The town has been exploring options for loans and grants, such as through the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, the Virginia Department of Health and the USDA Agency for Rural Development.

All of the town members agreed that moving forward, the town needs a water system that is self-sustaining.

The council members also said that they want to wait to see what happens with Aqua Virginia’s request to the State Corporation Commission to establish a water and wastewater infrastructure service charge.

Robyn Sidersky 540/374-5413

rsidersky@freelancestar.com

BY PORTSIA SMITH / THE FREE LANCE-STAR

A man convicted of sexually assaulting a 7-year-old girl in Caroline County will spend three years in prison.

Paul Maurice Butler, 33, who has no fixed address, entered an Alford plea to two counts of aggravated sexual battery last month.

Judge Patricia Kelley sentenced him Wednesday to 40 years in prison with all but three years suspended on condition that he be of good behavior for life.

Butler was convicted of assaulting the daughter of a friend in Woodford, according to Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Diane Abato.

Abato said during the October hearing that the friend was warned about Butler. The friend then questioned the girl, who described continuous sexual assaults by Butler, Abato said.

An investigation began, and the girl revealed to a forensic interviewing specialist that Butler had sex with her five times at her home.

He had been charged with five counts of rape, but those charges were amended in exchange for his Alford plea.

An Alford plea means that he does not admit guilt, but acknowledges there is enough evidence for a conviction.

Butler, who has previous sex-offense convictions in other jurisdictions, must register as a sex offender and have no contact with the victim or any witnesses in the case.

Portsia Smith: 540/374-5419

psmith@fredericksburg.com