Burdens within John Maccarelli's life were difficult to bear

Burdens within John Maccarelli's life were difficult to bear
By Bill Stevens, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Monday, February 22, 2010
NEW PORT RICHEY

John Maccarelli awoke to a Pasco County sheriff's detective knocking on his door. What happened to the baby? Maccarelli, a 33-year-old construction worker renting a house in Holiday with his longtime girlfriend and her 9-year-old daughter, knew right away what Detective Janet Raybuck was talking about. Or so he thought.

The night before, he had watched a 3-month-old named Joshua for an acquaintance. Sometime during the night, Lola, his 25-pound beagle, had jumped on the bed and scratched the baby across the nose, he said. It was upsetting, but he didn't think it would bring a detective to his door. Raybuck questioned him about the dog. A technician videotaped Lola jumping on the bed. The next day — Jan. 12, 2009 — the detective charged Maccarelli with aggravated child abuse. Joshua had been beaten. He was in serious condition at Helen Ellis Hospital in Tarpon Springs. A headline in the Tampa Tribune read, "Holiday Man Accused of Child Abuse Blamed Dog.'' Bloggers had their way with Maccarelli. It would get worse.

When the state attorney's office in Pasco County learned of the murder charge, it dropped the case against Maccarelli — three days after Christmas.

John Maccarelli had hanged himself with Lola's leash.

read more here

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/article1074861.ece

Olympian's strength built from life on the streets

Olympian's strength built from life on the streets
By Steve Almasy, CNN
February 22, 2010 8:51 a.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
As a child, bobsledder Bill Schuffenhauer often lived on the streets

His mother and stepfather were addicts

He turned to athletics in junior high and became a star decathlete

After his track career ended, he tried out and made bobsled team that won silver in 2002

Vancouver, British Columbia (CNN) -- Many kids dream of being in the Olympics one day. When U.S. bobsledder Bill Schuffenhauer was a child in Salt Lake City, Utah, he had no idea the Olympics even existed.

All he knew was his parents were drug addicts, that his mother was a prostitute who was often beaten in front of him. He knew that if he was going to survive, he had to do whatever it took to make it.

He stole from people; he ate from garbage cans; he got locked up in juvenile detention for breaking into a bike shop when he was trying to get something he could sell for money so he could eat.

He had few friends, most of them acquaintances of his mother or the other street kids, many of whom were in gangs. His mom and stepfather were constantly getting evicted. When he wasn't homeless and living in a park, he lived in foster homes. He skipped school a lot. He drank and got high on weed.

Life was hard and at times terrifying, and he dreamed of finding a real home.

"I knew that there was something better," Schuffenhauer, 36, said last week as he readied for his third Olympic Games. "And although there were a lot of horrible things that happened, it's made me a stronger person."

Just around the time he was entering junior high, Schuffenhauer's maternal grandmother, Sadie Muniz, took him. She lived in the town of Roy, Utah, about 30 minutes north of Salt Lake City. As tears began to build, he talked about her steadying influence and how she was always there to pull him up or pull him back when he started messing up again.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/02/22/olympics.bobsledder.homeless/?hpt=T3

Flying tire kills fan at NHRA race

Flying tire kills fan at NHRA race
February 22, 2010 9:00 a.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Car flipped in first-round race of NHRA Arizona Nationals and caught fire

Wheel flew off car and struck woman in the stands

She was airlifted to a local hospital, where she died

(CNN) -- A spectator died Sunday after she was struck by a tire from a crashing dragster during the NHRA Arizona Nationals near Phoenix, Arizona.

The car flipped in the first-round race and caught fire, said Alia Maisonet, spokeswoman for the Gila River Indian reservation in Chandler, Arizona, where the racetrack is located.

During the accident, a wheel flew off the car and struck the woman in the stands, she said.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/22/arizona.race.death/index.html?hpt=T2

Bloggers bust "alleged" military faker

Blogger helps expose alleged military faker

By Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Feb 22, 2010 10:15:42 EST

The goateed man was decked out in a formal Army uniform with a dozen medals pinned to his jacket and a Commander of the British Empire medallion hanging around his neck.

To blogger Mark Seavey, the “general” was an obvious fraud. Seavey’s fellow bloggers at the conservative “This Ain’t Hell” posted a photo of the alleged faker online, dead set on smoking him out.

“Wearing two Distinguished Service Crosses and a Combat Infantry Badge with two stars, is analogous to saying someone is a pitcher for the Red Sox and a quarterback for the Patriots,” said Seavey. “If that person existed, you would know about them.”

The blog post led to tips, angry comments, media attention and ultimately the Feb. 5 arrest of Michael P. McManus, a 44-year-old former Army private first class who served from 1984 to 1987.

It’s not a first for Seavey and the blog’s volunteer staff. Seavey said they have exposed about a dozen others who have claimed unearned medals or insignia, and publicized other cases.

Seavey and his fellow bloggers are among a cadre of self-appointed stolen-valor police. There’s also Mary Schantag, co-founder of the P.O.W. Network.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/02/army_stolenvalor_022210w/

For Women Veterans, Battles Go On at Home

For Women Veterans, Battles Go On at Home
Female Vets Face Lower Pay, Higher Incidence of Homelessness and Fewer Services than Their Male Counterparts
By Russ Mitchell

(CBS) More than 212,000 female service members have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan - 11 percent of the total force. One hundred twenty have been killed in action and more than 600 wounded, but the losses don't end there. CBS News correspondent Russ Mitchell reports on the battles these female warriors face after they return home.

Angela Peacock is just 30 years old, a veteran of the Iraq war who was discharged from the Army for health reasons and became homeless.

"Why does it have to be so hard," she sobs, "to just have a home and to just have a normal life?"

Peacock says she was living "from couch to couch" and "cleaning people's houses so I could stay with them."
read more here
For Women Veterans Battles Go On at Home

When will DOD apologize to the troops for Maj. Hasan

When will DOD apologize to the troops for Maj. Hasan?
by
Chaplain Kathie

13 dead, 32 wounded but the well kept secret of Maj. Hasan's treasonous actions could have prevented this slaughter. Above all the findings of the chain of command overlooking what he said, what he believed that suicide bombers were necessary, the screaming fact is that the commanders did not put the troops first by having "Army’s few Muslim mental health specialists" never once thinking of what he was saying to the troops coming to him for help. What kind of a message did this send to them as they were seeing their buddies blown up by suicide bombers? What kind of a message did this send to them that they were exposed to someone with hatred for them enough that he wanted them dead?

Everything coming out about what the DOD allowed to be continued has not been the basis for a total reckoning of what this did to the troops. Not just the soldiers and their families at Fort Hood subjected to the shattering of their "home" territory, but to all the servicemen and women on every base now wondering who is on their base with the same kind of history put in charge of their mental healthcare. How many others are looking over their shoulders wishing they had their gun with them on base in case there is another Hasan out there somewhere promoted up the chain for the sake of any other reason than the welfare of the troops?

Whatever they use for an excuse of why they did it, the fact remains the best interests of the troops were not even considered. The result goes far beyond the 13 dead and 32 wounded. The result will be carried in the minds of every serviceman and women risking their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the veterans of these wars still wounded by combat by body and soul.

There needs to be a very public apology to the troops and their families with the assurance nothing like this will ever happen again.

Ft. Hood suspect was Army dilemma
His extreme views possibly overlooked in favor of diversity


By Bryan Bender
Globe Staff / February 22, 2010
WASHINGTON - Army superiors were warned about the radicalization of Major Nidal Malik Hasan years before he allegedly massacred 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, but did not act in part because they valued the rare diversity of having a Muslim psychiatrist, military investigators wrote in previously undisclosed reports.

An obvious “problem child’’ spouting extremist views, Hasan made numerous statements that were not protected by the First Amendment and were grounds for discharge by violating his military oath, investigators found.

Examples of Hasan’s radical behavior have previously been disclosed in press accounts based on interviews with unnamed Army officials, including his defense of suicide bombings and assertions that Islamic law took priority over his allegiance to the United States.

But the Pentagon’s careful documentation of individual episodes dating back to 2005 and the subsequent inaction of his superiors have not been made public before.

The Globe was permitted to review the Army’s more complete findings on the condition that it not name supervisory officers who did not act, some of whom are facing possible disciplinary action.

In searching for explanations for why superiors did not move to revoke Hasan’s security clearances or expel him from the Army, the report portrays colleagues and superiors as possibly reluctant to lose one of the Army’s few Muslim mental health specialists.
read more here
Ft. Hood suspect was Army dilemma

Vietnam veterans are the face of what George Washington warned

Vietnam veterans are the face of what George Washington warned
by
Chaplain Kathie

If there's a generation of veterans that have had a tough row to hoe, it's the Vietnam generation," said Shinseki

I use this quote at the bottom of every email I send out.

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

We can use the word "appreciation" but few understand what it really means.

appreciation

Main Entry: ap·pre·ci·a·tion
Pronunciation: \ə-ˌprē-shē-ˈā-shən, -ˌpri- also -ˌprē-sē-\
Function: noun
Date: 1604
1 a : judgment, evaluation; especially : a favorable critical estimate

b : sensitive awareness; especially : recognition of aesthetic values

c : an expression of admiration, approval, or gratitude

2 : increase in value

Some people think a simple "thank you" does it all. They get to say the words, then get on with their own lives. Doesn't matter much to them that the person they just thanked for their service may not have a place to sleep or call home. It doesn't matter he or she may have been followed home by ghosts combat conjured up. It doesn't matter if those ghosts turned into full blown PTSD invading every part of their lives and the lives of their families trying like hell to understand what the hell just happened to their family when their veteran came home with all the limbs they had when they left. After all, according to most, the loss of a limb or clear scars are suppose to be the only wounds they have to worry about. When it comes to PTSD or TBI, if they can't see it, it didn't happen.

Some people feel obligated to show up at the funerals for the fallen to show their appreciation but when they die after they've been home for a while, no one seems to care except for the families, still wondering what happened to make everything they depended on, found security with, evaporated after the welcome home party. Soldiers fallen because of combat but not during combat somehow don't seem to merit the same appreciation from us. We don't stop to think that had they not gone into combat in our name, they wouldn't have come home the way they did.

Some of us figure that if they should end up homeless with yet one more shattered family left behind, it's their own damn fault. We sure don't want a shelter for veterans in our neighborhood. That would be bad for the home values and would put an undesirable element where we raise our kids and mow the laws, never once thinking about the fact these men and women cared more about us when they decided to serve than we cared about them after we sent them to do it. Imagine being a combat veteran kicked as low as you can get after being willing to lay down your life of the sake of what this country asked only to hear someone say that they don't want you in their neighborhood. How would that make you feel? Would this look like a grateful nation to you? Would you feel appreciated by anyone anywhere?

While few veterans actually do bring themselves to file claims with the VA (it's like fighting a losing battle to get them to admit they need help) we can't even manage to take care of the ones seeking help. As bad as the backlog is right now imagine if more than the less than half seeking help actually found enough hope to go for it? Do you think they feel appreciated when they have to wait months and years for claims to be honored, treatment delivered to heal and their neglected suffering to matter? Oh, but then we would also have to address the fact of the less than adequate disability rating when they cannot work anymore but end up with a rating of 30% or less to live off of for the rest of their lives while supporting families.

With all of this, General Shinseki pointed out how Vietnam veterans have had the toughest "row to hoe" when it comes to their service being really appreciated. No one wants to take away the attention the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are getting but it shouldn't come down to pushing back one generation over letting in the new guys in line. They should all be taken care of since this is the same nation they all served and the same nation that owes them a debt.

When it comes to PTSD treatment, newer veterans get the funding from charity groups. Ed Shultz is supporting selling coffee so that part of the money goes to IAVA and PTSD treatment but Ed doesn't seem to understand that the IAVA is only for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, just as most of the other newer charities are interested in serving, yet again forgetting about the Vietnam veterans and the Gulf War veterans. Why does it ever have to come down to one generation over another when Washington seemed to understand that it's about every generation and leaving one behind reflects poorly on all others?

This is the part I find impossible to understand. Had it not been for the Vietnam veterans coming home with the same type of wound as other generations, fighting for all generations of veterans to be taken care of, treated and compensated for the wound of PTSD, the newer veterans would be still back in the dark ages they came home to. None of what we see today would have been possible without them but they are still in line waiting for real appreciation. The "let's have a parade" idea is nice but it doesn't pay their bills when PTSD has destroyed their careers and broke their family apart. The "let's put up a monument" is nice but does not house one single homeless veteran living on the streets as a monument to our past failures.

When it comes to the Vietnam veterans all you have to do is look at any service organization and see the work they do. Most of them are run by Vietnam veterans dedicated to taking care of all veterans, not just some. Take a look at businesses being run and more than likely you'll find a Vietnam veteran at the top of the food chain. Look at the accomplishments and dedication these men and women have and then ask yourself if we are anywhere close to being able to deliver the message "from a grateful nation" to them when we allow all that is going on to happen to them while we shake their hand and say "Thank you for your service."

Shinseki: US will fix broken VA disability system

By KIMBERLY HEFLING
The Associated Press
Monday, February 22, 2010; 6:46 AM

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio -- Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said he's making it a top priority this year to tackle the backlog of disability claims that has veterans waiting months - even years - to get financial compensation for their injuries.

Among those waiting for relief are sick Vietnam and Gulf War veterans to whom the former Army commander feels an allegiance and who have long felt ignored.

"I'm a kid out of the Vietnam era, I just have enough firsthand knowledge of folks walking around with lots of issues. If there's a generation of veterans that have had a tough row to hoe, it's the Vietnam generation," said Shinseki, 67, in an interview with The Associated Press as he traveled through snowcapped mountains in Ohio and West Virginia between meetings with veterans.

Shinseki, a former Army chief of staff who had part of a foot blown off when he was a young officer in Vietnam, was unapologetic about a decision he made in October to make it easier for potentially 200,000 sick Vietnam veterans who were exposed to the Agent Orange herbicide to receive service-connected compensation.
read more here
US will fix broken VA disability system

Miracle after Navy Knighthawk crash, all rescued

17 Rescued After W.Va. Navy Helo Crash
February 20, 2010
The Virginian-Pilot

They kept warm by starting fires and huddling inside cold-weather gear after the crash of their Navy helicopter Thursday on a remote mountainside in West Virginia.

Some suffered from broken bones and strained backs. Snow drifted 5 feet deep in places, and the temperature dipped below 20 degrees.

Guided by a pair of coordinates and pencil flares, rescuers finally reached the 17 stranded service members -- nearly a dozen hours after the crash of their Norfolk-based MH-60S Knighthawk.

Two medics lowered from overhead tended to the injured, and the rescuers, who traveled by snowcat and snowmobile, evacuated passengers throughout the night.

Late Friday morning, a relieved Capt. Steve Schreiber announced that the last were en route to a hospital. No one had died, and no one was seriously injured.

"For us, this is good news," said Schreiber, the commodore of Helicopter Sea Combat Wing Atlantic in Norfolk. "It is a miracle to have no catastrophic injuries."
read more here
17 Rescued After W Va Navy Helo Crash

Three teen girls killed by train, countless lives changed

Three teenage girls were dropped off at the mall with a friend. Three teenage girls didn't make it back home. Parents had to find out that they were hit by a train instead of just being girls at a mall. A friend lived to tell what happened, but went from having fun with his friends, to watching them die. A neighbor near the tracks said he will never stop thinking about it. Another man nearby heard it all happened and had even warned the girls about the danger they were getting themselves into. The people on the train will never be the same. The emergency responders will never be the same. The families and friends of these girls will never be the same. This is what a traumatic event looks like. It is never a case where just the family is changed, but countless other lives as well.

Train kills 3 teen girls crossing Florida bridge
By MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press Writer

MELBOURNE, Fla. (AP) -- Three teenage girls were joking around and taking pictures on a narrow bridge when they were hit by a train, killing them as a friend watched helplessly, police and a witness said Sunday.

The girls and the fourth teenager, a boy, had been hanging out in Melbourne's downtown area - known for its shops and nightclubs - when they decided to cross the trestle around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Lt. Curtis Barger said. Their parents had dropped them off at a mall, and then they took a bus downtown where they were "just goofing off," he said.

The boy yelled for the girls to run when he saw the train approach, then told them to jump, Barger said. Crane Creek, about 20 feet below the bridge, is slow-moving and about 10 feet deep. The girls did not have enough time.

Bruce Dumas, 53, said he was fishing under the bridge when he saw the teens walk onto the trestle around sunset. He warned them to be careful, but he said they didn't pay much attention to him.

"You know how kids are," Dumas said. "They probably wanted pictures of themselves on the track."

The girls were about midway across when the train barreled down the tracks, blowing its whistle continuously, he said. Dumas said he could hear the sound of the brakes. After the impact, he heard a girl screaming and crying.

"I think the train was on them so fast they froze and didn't know what to do," Dumas said. "It's crazy to watch a young life snuffed out like that. They didn't have a chance to live yet."
read more here
Train kills 3 teen girls crossing Florida bridge

Arrest raises questions on care at VA

Three tours and what he is left with is feeling like this for having done what was asked of him.

“The VA is totally unequipped to handle all the soldiers who are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and need help,” the veteran said. “This has been devastating to me and my family. . . . I’m sick of America right now.’ ”

Oh but we get to say we "support the troops" and we are a "grateful nation" without every once noticing that to be either one, you can't get there from here repeating the same mistakes, coming up with more excuses and letting any of this happen.

Arrest raises questions on care at VA
Inadequate counseling blamed for assaults
By Dan Herbeck
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Britten M. Walker was a deeply troubled man when he returned home last year after surviving three combat tours—two in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, his family says.

Stewing in anxiety and frustration, he spent time in Alaska and San Diego before returning in August to his roots and moving into an apartment in Eden. He enrolled at Erie County Community College in hopes of someday becoming an architect.

But in late January, the anger inside Walker boiled out of control.

Federal police officers arrested him after he made a series of bizarre threats and assaulted a doctor and a police officer at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Buffalo.

Walker, 32, faces federal charges of assault, threatening to kill a VA worker and threatening to bomb a Buffalo television station and cars on the Thruway. He has been jailed since his arrest.

His family says Walker doesn’t intend to seriously hurt anyone. But they said he is angry and frustrated because he cannot find an effective counseling program.

“I think his actions are a cry for help and a cry of frustration,” said Walker’s twin brother, Andrew, of Eden. “He suffers from [post-traumat-ic stress disorder], and he needs help. For some reason, he hasn’t been able to make a connection with the counselors at the VA in Buffalo.”
read more here

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/963982.html