Veteran Admits He Lied To Collect VA Benefits

Veteran admits lying for over $121,000 in benefits
Toledo Blade
May 3, 2016

An Army veteran who received more than $121,000 in benefits intended for low-income, disabled veterans admitted in federal court Monday that he lied in his application for benefits about his income and ability to work.

Antonio Estrada, 65, of Toledo pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary to theft of government money and property of more than $1,000. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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Was Veteran Released From VA After Standoff Too Quickly?

Female veteran in crisis enough to cause a seven hour standoff yet she was only in the VA for less than a week afterwards?

Standoff suspect charged after quick release from VA hospital
News Herald
Jon Stinchcomb, Reporter
April 15, 2016

After being taking into custody, Muirhead was taken to a Veterans Administration Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to receive treatment. She reportedly was released from the hospital within less than a week.

PORT CLINTON - The woman alleged to have caused a seven-hour standoff with police last week has been charged with two misdemeanors despite initial statements from police that charges would not be filed.

Melissa Muirhead, 30, of Port Clinton, was charged Thursday with one count of aggravated menacing and one count of inducing panic, both first-degree misdemeanors.

According to authorities, Muirhead is a military veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The Port Clinton Police Department and Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office previously responded to multiple calls to her home for similar welfare checks in recent years.

Because there were no injuries from the incident, Port Clinton police Chief Rob Hickman initially said he did not expect charges to be filed.

However, after detectives conferred with assistant prosecutor Dave Boldt, the two misdemeanor charges were filed in Ottawa County Municipal Court.

According to officers from Port Clinton Police Department, the hope is that the charges will result in some form of court-ordered treatment so an incident does not happen again.
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Critical Missing Person is Iraq Veteran

UPDATE
Missing Marine veteran found safe in San Diego area
WCPO Staff
4:52 PM, Apr 15, 2016
30 mins ago
CINCINNATI — The Marine veteran reported missing from his Anderson Township home on Wednesday was found safe in the San Diego, California area, according to authorities.

San Diego sheriff's deputies safely located Anthony “Tony” Pastura, WCPO sister station KGTV reported.
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Missing Marine served with heavy-hit unit in Iraq
Marine Corps Times
Matthew L. Schehl and Jeff Schogol
April 14, 2016

A Marine from one of the heaviest-hit units of the Iraq War is missing, and Cincinnati-area police are urgently asking for help locating him.

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office issued a “critical missing person” alert Wednesday evening for veteran Anthony “Tony” Pastura, 33, who has not been seen since Monday.

“Anthony suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and has made previous suicidal threats,” police said in the statement. “Anthony is possibly operating a dark blue, 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee with an Ohio Licence Plate ‘169YIE’.”

Officials said that he could be in central Ohio or with friends in Columbus, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

Pastura served as a mortarman with Columbus-based Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, including a 2010-2011 deployment to Afghanistan. He left the Reserve as a sergeant in December 2012, according to Marine Corps officials.

One month before Pastura joined the unit, Lima 3/25 deployed to Haditha, Iraq. “Lucky Lima” lost 22 Marines and a corpsman over that deployment, 11 during a single improvised explosive device attack in August 2005.
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Female Iraq Veteran Getting Help After Standoff with Police

UPDATE April 7, 2016
Officials: Standoff subject has PTSD

Officials reported Muirhead is a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq and was suffering from PTSD, a condition of persistent mental and emotional stress occurring as a result of injury or severe psychological shock, typically involving disturbance of sleep and constant vivid recall of the experience.

Police: Woman in Port Clinton standoff is Iraq War veteran
Toledo Blade
April 7, 2016

PORT CLINTON — Authorities have identified a 31-year-old Iraq War veteran as a woman who kept law enforcement agents at bay in a nearly seven-hour standoff in the city Wednesday night.

Melissa Jo Muirhead, an Army veteran, was taken to a hospital for evaluation, according to Port Clinton police.
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From NBC 24

Officials say Muirhead is known to police and is believed to be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Charges are not likely, according to Chief Hickman.

Ohio VA Clinic Swaps Bible for 'Prop'

This is from Navy Life on what the Bible on the POW MIA Table means.

"The tradition of setting a separate table in honor of our prisoners of war and missing comrades has been in place since the end of the Vietnam War. The manner in which this table is decorated is full of special symbols to help us remember our brothers and sisters in arms."

"The Bible represents faith in a higher power and the pledge to our country, founded as one nation under God." Yet somehow over the years some folks seemed to manage pretty well putting their lives on the line for others they served with but cannot manage to put up with seeing something like this on a table.  Pretty astonishing when you think about it. 

Ohio VA Clinic Swaps Bible for 'Prop' Book After
Complaint
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan
Apr 06, 2016

A Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Youngstown, Ohio, substituted a "prop" book for a Bible after a civil rights organization accused the facility of endorsing a particular faith by having only the Christian holy book displayed at a table set up to honor American prisoners of war and missing in action.

In a note to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation on Monday, Kristen Parker, chief of external affairs for Cleveland VA Medical Center -- which handles media for the Youngstown clinic -- said the Bible was "replaced with a generic book, one whose symbolism can be individualized by each of our veterans as they pay their respects" to POWs and MIAs.

Parker told Military.com on Tuesday that because the VA cannot endorse, favor or inhibit any specific religion, "we are supporting our local veteran organizations with their decision to use a prop-book on the POW/MIA Table at our Youngstown [clinic]."

Parker previously said the clinic would support the Disabled American Veterans -- the group that set up the table -- in its decision to display the Bible on the missing man table.

The switch was made after the veteran who initiated the complaint, working with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, responded to the clinic's initial refusal to pull the Bible by demanding a separate table be set up with the Jewish Torah and a copy of "The God Delusion," a popular book on atheism. "If in the future I decide to add the Quran, or Mormon book of Latter Day Saints, that is my implied right," retired Army Capt. Jordan Ray wrote.
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Desert Storm Veteran and Dog Healed By Community

Veteran's beloved service dog breaks leg, community steps in to help
5-month-old puppy hurt playing outside needs surgery
WLWT News
By Tammy Mutasa
Published Apr 01, 2016

“I don’t look at it as trying to help Jim or help a veteran. They don’t need our help. To me, it’s repay the debt that’s never going to able to be repaid.” Curt Edwards

CLERMONT COUNTY, Ohio —A service dog which has been helping a local veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder is the one that needs help now.

Five-month-old Apollo has changed veteran Jim's life forever; he has never left Jim's side since they've been together for the last three months.

“He's my best friend, there ain't no doubt about it,” veteran Jim said.

Jim is an Army 82nd Airborne Division Veteran from Desert Storm battling PTSD.

“He's everything, I don't really have no friends. I don't hang out with nobody. I'm a homebody. It's just me and him,” Jim said. “He's just there for me, you know what I mean, no matter. If I've had super bad day or if I feel bad, just don't feel like talking, seeing, opening my blinds, he's here for me.”

“In the past few months we've seen him with Apollo, we've just seen Apollo change his life,” said family friend Curt Edwards.

The community said it’s coming together to help heal a dog who healed a friend who has sacrificed so much.

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Ohio Veteran Gets Back Stolen PTSD Service Dog

Veteran reunites with service dog after woman arrested for stealing it
FOX 8 Cleveland
Kaily Cunningham
MARCH 25, 2016

Dog being reunited with his owner. Courtesy Alliance police.

ALLIANCE, Ohio – A woman was arrested in Alliance on Friday after police found a dog inside her home she was accused of stealing.

Alliance police say Andrea Sindledecker, 34, allegedly stole a service dog from a man she was in a relationship with.

The man, a military veteran, lives in Delta, Ohio and had the dog for his post traumatic stress disorder.
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POW-MIA Traditional Bible Removed from Akron VA

Seems really odd that a tradition that goes back decades suddenly offends a few and is removed while the multitudes finding comfort in the remembrance were forgotten about in a POW-MIA remembrance display.

Bible removed from Akron Veterans Affairs display causes uproar
By Amanda Garrett
Beacon Journal staff writer
March 11, 2016

A small dining table in Akron set up to remember soldiers who never came home — those missing in action or taken prisoner during war — has set off a large national battle over religious symbols in government spaces.

Everything on the POW-MIA table, a tradition since the Vietnam War, is a symbol: The white tablecloth represents the purity of the soldiers’ duty. Salt on a bread plate represents tears shed by soldiers’ families. A Bible has represented faith.

But not all POW-MIAs are Christian.

And when a local soldier, permanently disabled in Afghanistan, saw a red New Testament Bible on a POW-MIA table in the lobby of the Akron Veterans Affairs health care facility last month, he was troubled.

“I know for a fact that all POW-MIAs were not Christian because my grandfather was MIA from World War II and he was Jewish,” the disabled soldier said this week during an interview.

He reached out to a nonprofit that fights for the religious rights of the U.S. armed forces, which in turn contacted the administrator of the Akron VA.

Within days, the Bible was gone.
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Vietnam Veterans Find Fellowship and Support

Aging Vietnam vets find fellowship
Cincinnati.com
Anne Saker
March 5, 2016

MIDDLETOWN — On Thursday afternoons, in a small church in this Butler County city, a band of brothers gathers. They are gray now, many soft in the middle, stepping over the line into retirement. They slip on the VETERAN caps. Outside the church, they say, they don’t talk much. But inside, they can point at last to the shadows that haunt them still, and a brother says, I see them, too.

Some of the men discuss government paperwork. Others brew coffee. One nudges the next man, wearing the Silver Star for valor on his hat, and teases, "you know, he’s the crazy one." At one recent meeting, some of the men shake their heads over a troubled Iraq War veteran suffering from PTSD, whose body was found Feb. 20 in the Little Miami River near Loveland.

The men call themselves the Veterans Social Command, but the name is more formal than the group itself. Seven years ago, seven veterans of the Vietnam War started meeting to helping others file claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs. As the years passed, they found that what their brothers needed was fellowship. Today, the command counts its number at 90 and growing.

“We didn’t start out like this,” said James Shepherd of Middletown, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam and was a charter member of the Veterans Social Command. “It was just a few people in PTSD group. We realized the more we met that the guys needed two things: help with the VA, which we could do, and a fellowship, just being together. Some of these guys haven't talked about what they did in the war since they came home."
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Third Marine Attacked--Hate Crime

Marine Corps veteran says he became target of hate crime
ABC 6 News
BY LISA RANTALA
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29TH 2016

COLUMBUS — A Marine Corps veteran says he became a random target in the Short North and police are consulting with prosecutors to determine if the case is a hate crime.

Grant Gray enlisted in the Marines in 2011 and served seven months in Afghanistan last year.

"My job in the Marine Corps was the 7-51. It's aircraft rescue and firefighting," Gray told ABC 6/FOX 28 from his home near Lima. "Pretty much rescuing downed pilots when they crash."

He's now studying sports management at Miami University and has been thinking about transferring to OSU for business. He came here to Columbus out homes and apartments Friday.

But he says rather than finding support, he was the recipient of hate. "I don't remember too much because I have a pretty severe concussion," Gray said.
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Linked from Bizpac

Body of Missing Veteran Found in Ohio

Missing Morrow man's body found in Little Miami River 
WLWT News 
By Jeff Cousins 
Feb 21, 2016 

Aaron Berns, 27, fled from scene of house fire in January


MORROW, Ohio —A months-long search for a missing Morrow man ended Saturday.

Aaron Berns, 27, went missing Jan. 1 after a fire in the 200 block of Main Street in Morrow.

Berns' family said he had been struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder after serving two tours in the military overseas.

Prior to the identification of the body, the family had planned a vigil for Berns on Sunday.
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UPDATE

Family holds vigil for Morrow veteran pulled from river

Cincinnati News, FOX19-WXIX TV

Navy SEAL Receiving Medal of Honor Was a Corpsman

SEAL Who Rescued Doctor in Afghanistan to Receive Medal Of Honor
Military.com
by Hope Hodge Seck
Feb 02, 2016

Byers, a native of Toledo, Ohio, began his 17-year Navy career as a hospital corpsman, serving with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

A Navy SEAL who was part of a courageous hostage rescue in Afghanistan in 2012 will receive the military's top award for heroism later this month, the White House announced today.

Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Edward Byers will be awarded the Medal of Honor on Feb. 29. He will be the 11th living service member to receive the award for actions in Afghanistan.

Byers, 36, was a member of the team that conducted a heroic raid Dec. 8 and 9, 2012 to rescue Dr. Dilip Joseph, an American who had been kidnapped in Afghanistan by the Taliban days before. Joseph was in the country as the medical director for Morning Star Development, a nonprofit organization training Afghan healthcare workers.

While Dilip was recovered safely from his captors, the operation proved costly. Petty Officer 1st Class Nicolas Checque, 28, a member of the Navy's elite SEAL Team 6, was shot and killed during the raid.
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Rep. Graham Hunt Valor Questioned After Stolen Photo

For a politician to use a photo of real grief in combat in a campaign is terrible. It is reprehensible for one to use it and say it was a photo of his grief.

‘Combat veteran’? Records fail to back state lawmaker’s claims 
Seattle Times
Jim Brunner
January 23, 2016

A doctored war photo and discrepancies about medals have raised questions about state Rep. Graham Hunt’s military background. He served in the Middle East and says he was “wounded in combat,” but has been vague about the details.

A 2014 post on the Facebook page of state Rep. Graham Hunt, R-Orting, displayed a version of a 2003 Associated Press photo with a doctored military insignia on the uniform. The post falsely claimed Hunt was one of the soldiers. Hunt blamed an unnamed campaign volunteer.

A version of this Associated Press photo was shared on Graham Hunt’s Facebook page. The photo shows Sgt. David Borell and Sgt. Maj. Bryan Pacholski, both of Ohio.

In May of 2014, a dramatic Iraq war photo was posted to the Facebook page of state Rep. Graham Hunt, R-Orting, showing two kneeling U.S. soldiers in desert combat uniforms, one man consoling the other.

 “This picture of me was taken after a mortar attack in 2005,” the post said. “Background has been modified, but I think combat camera captured the moment pretty well. I surely have not forgotten that moment.” 

Hunt is a decorated former Arizona Air National Guard member who deployed to the Middle East.

But neither soldier in the picture was him. The image was a doctored version of a 2003 Associated Press photo of two military policemen from Ohio during a deployment near Baghdad. The photo was removed several months later, with Hunt saying a campaign volunteer had posted it without his knowledge. read more here

In 2006 I start to make videos on PTSD using real pictures of soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. This was one of the photos I used many times. When I saw it being used by a politician, it damn near broke my heart. Then to read the Facebook post saying it was Hunt, all I wanted to do was find Sgt. David Borell and Sgt. Maj. Bryan Pacholski to let them know this moment of true compassion had been used for political gain. What makes all this even worse is Hunt was a member of Arizona Air National Guard.

Police Officer Killed in Ohio

Police officer shot and killed overnight in Knox Co; Officer and suspect identified
WCMH Columbus
NBC4 Staff
Published: January 18, 2016

The suspect's ex-girlfriend called 911 and told officers that the suspect was going out with the intention of hurting officers.

DANVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) — A Danville police officer was shot and killed overnight in Knox County.

Thomas Cottrell (Danville PD)

According to the Knox County Sheriff David Shaffer, Officer Thomas Cottrell was killed in the line of duty late Sunday night.

Sheriff Shaffer said around 11:20 p.m. Sunday, the Knox County dispatch center received a call stating that police officers in Danville were in danger. The woman told dispatchers that her ex-boyfriend, Herschel Ray Jones had left with weapons and was looking to kill an officer.

Dispatchers then tried to contact the Danville officer on duty, but were unsuccessful. Deputies from the Sheriff’s Office then searched the village.
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Ohio Police Officers Struggle to Get Help for PTSD

Jay McDonald: Addressing PTSD the honorable thing to do
IndeOnline
By JAY McDONALD
President, Ohio Fraternal Order of Police
Posted Jan. 15, 2016

“I was in such bad shape that I had to go to a residential treatment facility and the command staff at the time refused to allow me to use sick time and fought me every step of the way. I was a mess and nobody cared.”
Doug Pergran

Jay McDonald is president of the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio and also serves as national vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police. He is a major with the Marion Police Department.

The Philadelphia police officer who recently escaped a terrorist attack after being shot may well have scars beyond his physical wounds. The horror of being shot point blank by a terrorist could leave him with emotional trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD.

It’s happened before. Just as our soldiers fight the psychological effects of war when they return from the front lines, our emergency responders here at home regularly face similar horrors. Often, the result is PTSD.

Stories from people like James Niggemeyer, the Columbus police officer credited with saving lives in December 2004 when he answered a call and killed a crazed gunman who had killed four people at a nightclub. Niggemeyer is no longer a police officer, mainly because of the emotional toll of that night.

According to Niggemeyer, who’s been in counseling for the past 11 years, “the shooting changed my career path, not for the better. I’m happy to have been able to end the situation with no further tragedies after I arrived on the scene, but it certainly hasn’t made my life any better.”

Under current law, a police officer whose leg is broken carrying an injured child to safety can get workers’ compensation. If that same child dies a painful death in the officer’s arms and the officer isn’t injured, there’s no help for the officer. No treatment for the effects that would follow such a tragedy. No help for the crippling effects of the post-traumatic stress disorder. If someone breaks a leg on duty, it will be treated and all the medical costs will be covered by worker’s compensation. The break isn’t allowed to fester; the problem isn’t allowed to get worse. No one argues with a broken leg. Should a broken psyche be any less treatable? Both scenarios result in debilitation. In both situations, we owe it to the first responder to provide help.
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Ohio Rescue Crews Search River for Veteran With PTSD

Warren County fire, water rescue possibly related as crews look for suspect
WKRC Cincinnatti
Brad Underwood
January 1, 2016

Authorities are looking for 27-year-old Aaron Berns as a suspect in the fire set to a home on Miranda Street. (Warren County Sheriff's Office)

According to family members of Berns, the 27-year-old has military experience and suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

MORROW, Ohio (Brad Underwood) - The search for a 27-year-old Morrow man is on pause Saturday night as search crews wait for daylight to continue.

Multiple fire departments, the Warren County Sheriff's Office and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources spent Saturday combing the banks of The Little Miami River looking for Aaron Berns.

Berns is a person of interest in a house fire that is being ruled arson. When police and fire responded the house fire on Miranda Street they encountered Berns.

Lieutenant John Faine with the Warren County Sheriff's Office says Berns took off and dove head first into the river.
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Veteran With PTSD Needed Care, Ended Up Buried Under House

Mystery continues to surround Dayton body 
Cincinnati.com
Scott Wartman
December 29, 2015

Reis suffered various disabilities, including diabetes, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, police said. Russell isn't a professional caregiver.

Steven Reis (Photo: Provided)

Determining a cause of death for a body buried under a house for nine months has proven difficult.

What killed Air Force veteran Steven Reis, 55, remains a mystery almost four months after his badly decomposed body was found underneath the basement floor of a home in the 100 block of Sixth Avenue in Dayton.

Reis' caretaker, Christy Russell, remains in Campbell County Jail on $2,500 bond charged with credit card fraud for using Reis' credit/debit card to steal between $24,000 and $30,000 in his veterans benefits. She pleaded not guilty in December. A hearing in that case is scheduled for Jan. 11.
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Cancer Drug Trial Gave Hope to Iraq Veteran, Until It Ended

Cancellation of drug trial brings heartbreak to Anderson Township family
Cincinnati.com
Anne Saker
December 24, 2015

For 18 months, Brad Giesting of Anderson Township has been fighting a rare cancer with an experimental drug. But last week, the drug manufacturer stopped the clinical trial and withdrew the drug, giving Giesting and his family a hard lesson at the holidays about cancer medicine.

Brad Giesting (left) and his wife Annie on a recent

visit with Santa Claus with their daughters, Hailey 5,

and Lucy, who turns 4 on Dec. 27. (Photo: Provided)

“To me, it doesn’t make sense,” said Giesting’s wife, Annie. “I’m sure it happens all the time. But from my perception, it’s not right. I’m just confused by the whole thing.”

Annie Giesting, 29, said that three years ago, Brad, 30, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom as a member of the 101st Airborne, was diagnosed with liposarcoma, an uncommon cancer that can kill quickly. The couple have two young daughters.

Brad underwent surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. He got a brief reprieve, but the cancer returned. Brad then enrolled in a clinical trial at Ohio State University run by Morphotek Inc., an Exton, Pennsylvania, company. The drug, morab, showed promise in earlier testing in treating liposarcoma.

Annie Giesting said that for a year and a half, her husband went to Columbus every week for treatment with the new drug and for related testing.

“On Brad's last scan, we were given the unbelievable news that all except one tumor have disappeared," Annie Giesting wrote in an email. “We headed into the holiday season with hearts full of joy and so thankful for the blessings that we had received.”
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Police Need Help After Tennessee Veteran's Body Found

Officials: Army veteran’s death being investigated as possible homicide
Anyone with any information is asked to contact Investigator William Wall at 931-648-0611 ext 13415 or Crime Stoppers at 931-645-TIPS (8477)

Human remains found in Palmyra identified as Army veteran
Clarksville Now
December 14, 2015

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Tenn. – Investigators with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office have identified the human remains found in Palmyra Thursday morning as Melissa Sue Napier (Woodruff), 30, of Clarksville.

She had been reported missing on Dec. 8 by her brother.

Napier, originally from New York, is an Army veteran. She served in the military for four and a half years and rose to the rank of an E-5 Sergeant. She completed two tours in Iraq working as a Chemical Operations Specialist.

She leaves behind a young son. He is currently with his father in Ohio.
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Vietnam Veteran's Wife Gets Probation After He Died

Wife receives probation for failing to provide care for impaired Vietnam veteran
Ohio.com
Beacon Journal staff report
December 2, 2015

A woman received 12 months of probation after pleading guilty to a felony charge of failing to provide care for an impaired person in connection with the death of her husband in what police called “deplorable conditions” at their Onandago Trail home in Springfield Township, authorities said Wednesday.

Dorothy Marie “Dottie” Matwiju, 57, pleaded guilty to the fourth-degree felony last week in Summit County Common Pleas Judge Lynne Callahan’s court.

He was dead at the scene, according to an autopsy report. Police said that Matwiju (pronounced Mah-TWEE-yoo) weighed 84 pounds.

Case records show his last driver’s license listed him as 6 feet tall, 190 pounds.
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