Army man and police officer would have turned 28 Thanksgiving Day

Police Iraq Veteran Killed In Southern California
Riverside : CA : USA | Nov 09, 2010 BY Robert Weller

Ryan Bonaminio had survived two tours as a military policeman in Iraq, returning only last year from his second. His life was ended by an unidentified man he had pulled over while serving as a policeman in his native Riverside, Calif.Bonaminio, 27, would have turned 28 on Thanksgiving Day, the Los Angeles Times reported.“Army man and police officer. That’s all he ever wanted to be,” said his best friend, fellow Riverside policeman John Enriquez. Bonaminio had pulled over a truck with no rear license plate.
Police Iraq Veteran Killed In Southern California

A fundraiser will be held for Officer Ryan Bonaminio on December 3, at the Original Roadhouse Grill restaurant chain.

The owners of the company will host a day-long fundraiser at the company’s Riverside, restaurant in honor of Bonaminio, who died November 7.

Roadhouse will donate 100% of the proceeds generated at the Riverside restaurant on Friday, December 3rd to the family of Officer Bonaminio and the Riverside Police Officers’ Association’s “Officer and Family Assistance Fund.”

The Riverside Original Roadhouse Grill is located at 3838 Tyler Street. The restaurant opens its doors at 10:30 a.m. on December 3 and will remain open until 11:00 p.m.
A fundraiser will be held for Officer Ryan Bonaminio

Basic training

Basic Training
November 24, 2010 posted by Chaplain Kathie ·

“Freedom triumphant in War and Peace” is a nice thought but often impossible to find, yet we are only willing to glorify the victories while avoiding any unpleasantries connected to combat. We wave flags and send them off to war expecting they will be trained properly to join the “best military in the world” and win. We don’t want to hear about the wounded. The wounded can do nothing for us. We want to avoid any obligation we have to take care of them. We don’t want to hear about how many were killed any more than we want to hear about how many they had to kill to do their jobs. We don’t want to hear any kind of complaints about what happens to them after war because it is over as far as we’re concerned. They were given clothes, food, shelter and supplied with all the weapons they needed and that was all we owed them. That was all we wanted to know.

The bronze Statue of Freedom by Thomas Crawford is the crowning feature of the dome of the United States Capitol. The statue is a classical female figure of Freedom wearing flowing draperies. Her right hand rests upon the hilt of a sheathed sword; her left holds a laurel wreath of victory and the shield of the United States with thirteen stripes. Her helmet is encircled by stars and features a crest composed of an eagle’s head, feathers, and talons, a reference to the costume of Native Americans. A brooch inscribed “U.S.” secures her fringed robes. She stands on a cast-iron globe encircled with the national motto, E Pluribus Unum. The lower part of the base is decorated with fasces and wreaths. Ten bronze points tipped with platinum are attached to her headdress, shoulders, and shield for protection from lightning. The bronze statue stands 19 feet 6 inches tall and weighs approximately 15,000 pounds. Her crest rises 288 feet above the east front plaza.
A monumental statue for the top of the national Capitol appeared in Architect Thomas U. Walter’s original drawing for the new cast-iron dome, which was authorized in 1855. Walter’s drawing showed the outline of a statue representing Liberty; Crawford proposed an allegorical figure of “Freedom triumphant in War and Peace.” After Secretary of War Jefferson Davis objected to the sculptor’s intention to include a liberty cap, the symbol of freed slaves, Crawford replaced it with a crested Roman helmet.
Freedom

When their bodies return home in a casket with a flag over it, concealed under it is our guilt.
read more here
Basic training

Another Medal of Honor nominee says he does not feel like a hero

MoH nominee says he does not feel like a hero
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Nov 23, 2010 15:50:35 EST
He’s not a hero. Over and over, that’s what former Cpl. Dakota Meyer tells people who ask him about the ambush last year in eastern Afghanistan that led to the death of three Marines, a Navy corpsman and a U.S. soldier.

He didn’t respond any differently than many other Marines would have, the scout sniper says. He simply did his job.

The Marine Corps doesn’t see it that way. In an exclusive, Marine sources told Marine Corps Times that the service has made a formal recommendation that Meyer receive the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor. Gen. James Conway pushed the recommendation up to the Navy Department shortly before retiring as commandant Oct. 22, a source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the Pentagon does not allow officials to discuss military awards before decisions are finalized. Marine Corps Times first broke the story online Nov. 8.

The award still must be approved by the Navy Department, the Defense Department and the White House. If it makes it that far, Meyer, 22, would become the first Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor during the war in Afghanistan. No living Marine has received the award since 1970, during the Vietnam War.

Meyer, a 5-foot-11, 225-pound former high school linebacker with a soft Kentucky twang, sandy-brown hair and a quick wit, still struggles with what happened during the ambush. He left the Corps in June, and now wears a bracelet on each wrist, each engraved with the names of two friends who didn’t make it out of the firefight alive.

On Sept. 8, 2009, he charged into a kill zone on foot and alone near the remote, Taliban-controlled village of Ganjgal, in Kunar province, to find four fellow members of Marine Embedded Training Team 2-8, who had gone missing in a fierce firefight, according to military documents obtained by Marine Corps Times earlier this year. They were attacked in an early-morning ambush by about 150 well-fortified insurgents armed with machine guns, AK47s and rocket-propelled grenades.
read more here
MOH nominee says he does not feel like a hero/

KCTV5 Investigation: Veterans' Court

KCTV5 Investigation: Veterans' Court
POSTED: 6:51 pm CST November 22, 2010

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Reporters are rarely granted unlimited access in the courtroom, but a special court recently gave unprecedented access to the KCTV5 investigative team led by reporter Stacey Cameron.

The court is in Kansas City, and while the defendants face a variety of problems, such as homelessness, unemployment and post traumatic stress, they all share one thing in common -- every defendant is a military veteran.

Army veteran Ricky Bifford's life can be described as a work in progress. A remodeling effort of sorts.

"It was a time in my life when I didn't think anybody cared," he said.

There was a time when Bifford didn't have a job, a home or much of anything except a suspended driver's license, a history of drug abuse and a couple of misdemeanor warrants. He said that's when he was arrested and his life started looking up.

"I have to pinch myself now, you know, is this real or is it a dream because it's like a second chance," said Bifford.

The second chance came in all places, courtroom B of the Kansas City Municipal Court.

"I just think it's a problem that we don't try to help them when we can," said Judge Ardie Bland.

In his courtroom, Bland is trying to help veterans by recognizing the unique challenges face by some people when they get out of the military.

"They come back with post traumatic stress disorder," he said. "They come back depressed. Many of them it makes it difficult for them to come back and just flow right back into society."

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates 10 percent of adults with criminal records are veterans and nearly a third of those are homeless, or have problems with substance abuse.

Wanting to find an alternative to locking up veterans, Bland teamed up with the professionals at the Kansas City Veterans Administration Hospital and designed a special treatment court for vets charged with non-violent misdemeanors.

"For me, if you look at the success stories of our graduates and how it truly changes their lives, if we can impact just one person's life, that's enough for me," said Kelly Winship, justice outreach coordinator for the V.A.
read more here
http://www.kctv5.com/news/25884567/detail.html

Maybe some hope for PTSD "personality disorder" discharged veterans

This is a great piece on getting some rumors out of the way for veterans needing healthcare. The biggest thing I noticed is one that very well may help out some of the over 22,000 servicemen and women discharged under "personality disorder" when they actually have PTSD instead.

Busting Myths About VA Health Care

November 19, 2010 • TERRY HOWELL



The following post was originally fea tured on the VA’s VAntage Point blog.
By Alex Horton



Myth Number Two — I can only receive care for service connected injuries.

Status: False -
You can receive VA hospital and out patient care for any ailment, service con­nected or not if you are enrolled in the VA health care system, but you may have to pay a copayment. For example, if a Veteran is service-connected for a bad knee, any VA hospital and out patient care and medication for the knee is free of charge. However, if the same Vet goes into surgery to remove an appendix and it’s not service con nected, he may be subject to a co-pay depending on the amount of his disability rating and other factors. Familiarize your self with co-pay guide lines and rates.

A small number of Veterans, such as those with bad conduct discharges that VA has determined were issued under conditions other than honorable and who are not subject to certain statutory bars to benefits, can only be treated for their service connected disabilities and nothing else. If one of those Vets is service connected for their left foot, they can only use VA health care for their left foot and nothing else.
read more here
Busting Myths About VA Health Care

The trick with this is to get the VA to do what the DOD did not and that is to decide if a veteran was suffering from PTSD instead of for the reason they were given a "personality disorder" discharge. This is a "myth" that I didn't know about. I was under the impression that if a veteran received a less than honorable discharge, they couldn't receive any services from the VA at all. To this day I don't know how many ended up being kicked out of the service instead of being treated because the last reports are a couple of years old. It would be nice if congress would do the right thing in these cases, but I doubt that is ever going to happen.

Child's death brings Bragg total to 11

Child's death brings Bragg total to 11
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Nov 23, 2010 8:09:25 EST
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — A 5-month-old child living in Fort Bragg housing has become the 11th infant since 2007 to die in unexplained circumstances at the post.

The Fayetteville Observer reports the unidentified child died Saturday. Fort Bragg officials announced the death Monday.

Col. Kevin Arata says the post wouldn't normally discuss such deaths. He says officials are doing so in this case because of an ongoing investigation into the unexplained deaths of 10 other infants in Fort Bragg housing.

Fort Bragg officials say the death toll is not unusual for a community of its size. But the Army Criminal Investigation Command and other agencies are testing the houses where the children died.
Child's death brings Bragg total to 11/

Fire broke out late Monday at a small structure near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Fire starts near Vietnam memorial
By Martin Weil
A fire broke out late Monday at a small structure near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Initial accounts indicated that the structure was a booth used by Vietnam veterans and supporters concerned about those believed missing in action or prisoners of war.

The fire apparently destroyed the small booth, according to preliminary reports. The booth is at the west end of the Mall area, within sight of the Lincoln Memorial.
Fire starts near Vietnam memorial

UPDATE

Group to rebuild POW booth at Vietnam Memorial

VA recommends changes at Ohio center after suicide

VA recommends changes at Ohio center after suicide
NOVEMBER 23, 2010

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- A Veterans Affairs investigation concludes Dayton VA center staffers made reasonable efforts to treat a veteran who later killed himself, but it recommended changes there.

The Dayton Daily News reported Tuesday that VA officials have agreed to improve communications, and have stepped up suicide risk training after the April 16 death of 27-year-old Jesse Huff. Huff shot himself in front of the center hours after leaving there.
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VA recommends changes at Ohio center after suicide

Women's Distrust of VA Hard to Shed

Women's Distrust of VA Hard to Shed
November 22, 2010
Star Tribune
At the sprawling Minneapolis Veterans Medical Center, the women's care center is tucked away in a corner of the fourth floor, accessible only through hallways filled with men. Until a recent remodeling, the exam rooms faced out into the hallways.

Even advocates for female veterans can find themselves anxious about making a visit. That was the case recently for Trista Matascastillo, one of the founders of the Minnesota Women Veterans Initiative Working Group.

A Navy veteran who joined before her 18th birthday, she recently went to the VA for an exam to determine compensation and pension benefits. While there, she said, she encountered a male OB/Gyn on contract who left the door open and complained about women "crying sexual harassment." Afterward, lost in the labyrinth of hallways, she sat down in a hallway and cried.

When her group, a diverse collection of women who have served in the military, met recently at the Minneapolis VA, she hesitated to go inside.

"Why would I tell someone to go back?" she asked.

Female vets are making less use of VA health services than their male counterparts, even though they face comparable health problems.


A 2007 study found that 15 percent of female veterans used VA health care services compared with 22 percent of male veterans, with the difference largely attributable to issues of accessibility. As recently as three years ago, only about a third of VA medical centers and clinics provided services specific to women.
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Womens Distrust of VA Hard to Shed

Vets group promotes PTSD awareness in Fort Campbell visits

They say "Once a Marine, always a Marine" but when it comes to being a soldier in the Army, it usually ends up being "An Army of one, a veteran alone."

"Army of One" was a short-lived recruiting slogan. It briefly replaced the very-popular "Be All You Can Be" and was quickly replaced in 2006 by the new slogan "Army Strong". The reason for the replacement is believed to be that the slogan "Army of One" is contrary to the idea of teamwork. It was also very easy for political cartoonists to make fun of it (e.g. by saying "If you join, we can change the sign to Army of Two!"). Tom Metzger, a self declared "insurgent" in the United States, has enthusiastically embraced the slogan for freedom fighters, terrorists and lone wolf operators. Metzger frequently mentioned Timothy McVeigh, the individual responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing, as an "Army of One."
Army Slogans


2006 to present

"Army Strong" is the recruiting slogan that is used currently by the United States Army. The composer of the song used in the Army Strong television commercials is Mark Isham.
2001 to 2006

"Army Strong" is the current slogan but it needs to be changed so that soldiers always feel as if they belong just as the Marines feel they are still part of a family unit.

Iraq Veterans Against the War are still veterans. They came home and did something about what they saw was wrong and they are at it again. They see soldiers coming back suffering and they want to do something about it. They don't want any soldier to fight this battle alone.

Vets group promotes PTSD awareness in Fort Campbell visits
BY BRIAN EASON • THE LEAF-CHRONICLE • NOVEMBER 23, 2010
An anti-war group visited Fort Campbell this week to raise awareness about soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder who they claim are being re-deployed without adequate treatment.

Iraq Veterans Against the War calls it the Operation Recovery campaign, an effort that made headlines on Veterans Day when a former Fort Campbell soldier turned himself in after going AWOL over PTSD treatment.

Jeff Hanks, a 101st Airborne Division soldier, refused a re-deployment to Afghanistan in October. Afterward, he said he was being denied treatment for PTSD.

"We saw what happened in Vietnam — and they were only deployed once," said Sarah Lazare, a member of the Civilian-Soldier Alliance. "Here we are sending our young people on five, six deployments."
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Vets group promotes PTSD awareness