UPI forgot there are 5 quadruple amputees

Could someone please tell UPI they missed two other quadruple amputees?

Actor Gary Sinise, perhaps best-known for his Oscar-nominated role as a badly wounded Vietnam vet in the movie "Forrest Gump" walks with wounded veteran Marine Corporal Todd Nicely in St. Louis on April 11, 2011. Sinise and his band will play a Memorial Day weekend concert on May 27th in St. Charles, Missouri for Nicely, one of only three surviving quadruple amputees from the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Corporal Nicely lost both arms and legs after stepping on an IED in Afghanistan in March 2010. Sinise announced that proceeds from every ticket sold for the May 27th concert will go towards construction of a Smart Home for Corporal Nicely, part of a project sponsored by the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
UPI/Bill Greenblatt

Sgt. Brendan Marrocco

Army Staff Sgt. Travis Mills

Marine Sgt. John Peck

Marine Cpl. Todd Nicely

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Taylor Morris

Getting it wrong on Military Suicides

Getting it wrong on Military Suicides
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 2, 2014

There was a press release for American Foundation for Suicide Prevention giving an award to Senator Joe Donnelly.

"Donnelly Vows to Continue “Important Mission” to End Military Suicide, Recognized for Leadership on Military Suicide Prevention by AFSP."

Donnelly is trying and it seems as if everyone else has good intentions. The problem is, the numbers kept going up.

In 2012, approximately 349 members of the United States Military, including active duty, Guard, and Reserve, committed suicide, exceeding the total number of servicemembers who died in combat operations (295).

But this is the truth the numbers from the press release are not even close.

On February 12, 2014, Air Force Times reported these numbers for 2012 and 2013

Pentagon data provided to Military Times show 296 suicides among active-duty troops and reserve or National Guard members on active duty in 2013, down 15.7 percent from the 2012 total of 351.

Coming off a record-setting year in 2012, the Navy had the biggest drop, nearly 22 percent, from 59 to 46 sailor deaths. The Army also saw a large decline, down nearly 19 percent from 185 suicides in 2012 to 150 last year.

They also reported the numbers for the other branches.

The Air Force and Marine Corps both had near-record years in 2012; in 2013 they also experienced declines, with 55 airmen dying by suicide in 2013, down from 59 in 2012, and 45 Marines committing suicide in 2013, down from 48 the year before.

If you just look at the numbers the way there were reported, it is easy to assume that lower numbers are a good thing.

These are the numbers showing discharges just for misconduct alone.

The number of enlisted soldiers forced out for drugs, alcohol, crimes and other misconduct shot up from about 5,600 in 2007, as the Iraq war peaked, to more than 11,000 last year.

For enlisted airmen, the number ranged from a high of nearly 4,500 in 2002 to a low of almost 2,900 in 2013

"The number of Marines who left after court-martial has dropped from more than 1,300 in 2007 to about 250 last year."

The Navy went through a similar process. When the decision was made to cut the size of the 370,000-strong naval force in 2004, the number of sailors who left due to misconduct and other behavior issues grew. In 2006, more than 8,400 sailors left due to conduct issues.

That is not factoring in how many left the military because of cutbacks.  There were simply less to count.

Hiding PTSD Records Of Civil War Veterans?

What we know is that soldiers with what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, were shot for being cowards. They often ran away and yes, even committed suicide. There was an excuse back then because no one really understood what psychological trauma was. So what is their excuse for not releasing these documents? Easy. Family members may have the proof to clear the record of their veteran after all these years. I doubt there could be any other excuse.

Hiding PTSD Records Of Civil War Veterans?
Even files of the long dead are off limits
Editorial
The Hartford Courant
February 28, 2014

Doesn't this sound familiar?

Some years ago, Connecticut scholars researching post-traumatic stress disorder in Civil War veterans won a state Freedom of Information Commission ruling providing the researchers access to records of patients treated at a Middletown mental health facility in the 1860s.

That researchers would want to search such records makes sense. As Matthew Warshauer, the Central Connecticut State University professor who petitioned for the records, has written, the history of Civil War soldiers has "stark relevance for today's soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan."
read more here

The UK was doing it too.

At total of 304 men were executed during the First World War, while another 18 suffered the same fate while waiting to leave the army after the signing of the Armistice. Of those executed, the vast majority, 286, committed the offence while in the trenches on the Western Front.

Here during WWII

Nearly 50,000 American and 100,000 British soldiers deserted from the armed forces during World War II. (The British were in the war much longer.) Some fell into the arms of French or Italian women. Some became black-market pirates. Many more simply broke under the strain of battle.

These men’s stories have rarely been told. During the war, newspapers largely abstained from writing about desertions. The topic was bad for morale and could be exploited by the enemy. In more recent decades the subject has been essentially taboo, as if to broach it would dent the halo around the Greatest Generation.

“The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II,” by the historian and former ABC News foreign correspondent Charles Glass, thus performs a service. It’s the first book to examine at length the sensitive topic of desertions during this war, and the facts it presents are frequently revealing and heartbreaking.

'My dad was a soldier. He's in heaven now'

'My dad was a soldier. He's in heaven now':
Touching note of thanks that the eight-year-old son of dead Iraq veteran handed to soldier in restaurant along with $20 note
Myles Eckert, eight, found the cash in the parking lot of Cracker Barrel on February 7
Instead of buying a video game, he gave it to Lt. Col. Frank Dailey who was eating at the restaurant He said in a note that Dailey reminded him of his deceased dad who was a soldier and his family liked to 'pay it forward'

Army Sgt. Andy Eckert was killed in Iraq, just five weeks after Myles was born

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 01:53 EST, 1 March 2014

Touching: Myles wrapped the $20 in this handwritten note and gave it to Lt. Col. Frank Dailey

 When eight-year-old Myles Eckert found $20 in a Cracker Barrel parking lot, he didn't spend it on a video game - he gave it to a soldier to thank him for his service.

Myles was just five-weeks-old when his father, Army Sgt. Andy Eckert was killed in Iraq.

In honor of his dad's memory, the Ohio boy wrapped the money in a touching handwritten note and handed it to Lt. Col. Frank Dailey who was eating lunch at the restaurant:

'Dear Soldier - my dad was a soldier. He's in heaven now. I found this 20 dollars in the parking lot when we got here. We like to pay it forward in my family. It's your lucky day! Thank you for your service. Myles Eckert, a gold star kid.' read more here

Freedom of Religion

Freedom of Religion
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 1, 2014

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Genesis 1

I am free to believe. To believe that God started all of it, no matter how much we get wrong. Even Albert Einstein said "There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.

I am free to believe that Jesus was the Son of God and that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit live within me and I walk with them, no matter how many times I stumble, fall, lose my way and sin, I am forgiven. Forgiven, not because of me or anything I did, but because of what Jesus did.

I am free do love and to do good just as much as I am free to hate and do selfish things. I am not free of guilt if I do those things to someone else instead of for someone else.

I am free to walk into any house of worship as I see fit to attend but I am not free of their rules. If I decide to attend, then I am obligated to live within their rules.

I am free to walk away from what I do not believe in as much as I am free walk toward where my soul pulls me.

I am free to hold private that which I choose to leave between my soul and God, who knows all I am, just as I am free to speak and make public that which I will. I am not free to stop someone else from doing the same.

In this country we are all supposed to be free to believe what we want, do as we will, say what we want and go where we want, but all of this comes with an obligation.

If we seek to retain these freedoms, we must defend the rights of those we do not agree with. It is not our right to take away the freedoms of someone else.

I refuse to trivialize freedom. I refuse to hear fools speak of their rights being taken away simply because someone does not agree with them. I refuse to defend anyone attempting to take rights away from someone else because they do not like the way they live, the way they think or what they do with their own lives.

God did not give me the right to do anything other than make my own choices and leave the choices others make up to them. He gave me the right to freewill but freedom is something men and women risked their lives to retain.

I refuse to allow one religious denomination to force their beliefs on anyone else. To legislate their beliefs while they are supposed to be elected to represent everyones ability to make their own choices.

We have all heard far too much from people screaming their rights are being taken away because they have been prevented from taking the rights of others away.

If everyone is not free to believe, then no one is.

Military Women's History Month

Department of Defense Women's History Month

PROFILES IN LEADERSHIP

Navy Vice Adm. Michelle J. Howard

Howard is poised to become the service's first woman and the military's first African-American woman to achieve four-star rank. She will be assigned as the vice chief of naval operations.Profile

Retired Army Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody

Until her retirement in August 2012, Dunwoody was the commanding general of the Army Materiel Command, the culmination of more than 30 years of service in which she served at every command level.Profile

Air Force Lt. Gen. Janet C. Wolfenbarger

Air Force Gen. Janet C. Wolfenbarger, the Air Force's first female four-star, serves as Commander, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Profile

Army Maj. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho

Army Lt. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho, the first nurse and first woman appointed, became the Army's 43rd surgeon general in a ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.Profile

Army Maj. Gen. Marcia M. Anderson

Army Maj. Gen. Marcia M. Anderson is the current deputy chief of the Army Reserve. She has commanded at the Company level through General Officer. Profile

This is a video I did a few years ago.

Military Social Media Idiots Facebook Group Responds to Fools

Fort Carson's soldier's selfie spawns Facebook page on military social media missteps
The Gazette
By Tom Roeder
Published: February 28, 2014

Pfc. Tariqka Sheffey is far from alone among soldiers who post pictures online that they - and their commanders - may regret.

Fort Carson's Sheffey, who caused an Internet hurricane this week by posting a "selfie" on a website with the claim that she was hiding in her car to avoid saluting the flag, is likely the best known at the moment. But a Facebook group may change that. Military Social Media Idiots, which has more than 15,000 followers, features soldiers in, and notably out, of uniform.

The group was formed Monday when Sheffey's picture went viral, and she's the first addition to the group's timeline. But dozens of selfies later, the site has gathered a platoon of others in Sheffey's boot steps.
read more here

Help veterans remember what they did, they did for love

Help them remember what they did for love

When Jesus said "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." (John 15:12-13) and it should be added that level of love also comes when a man or woman is willing to lay down their lives.

Point Man International Ministries never charges veterans for the spiritual and emotional support they receive. While you see what is done on Wounded Times everyday, you do not see or hear about the veterans receiving this vital help to heal what has claimed the lives of far too many. PTSD does not win when the spiritual wounds are healed. They go on to live a better quality of life. Help them remember that what they did, they did for love. It was about the guy next to them. It was about their friends. That depth of love is what caused them to feel so much pain. Help them heal by helping Point Man of Winter Park. I am state of Florida coordinator of Point Man and we really need your help. There are only a few days left to help this ministry do more during a time when the need has never been so great.

Apartment house on fire, quick actions, military training, saved lives

Marine Saves Lives in Apartment Fire
Marine Corps News
by Cpl. Sarah Cherry
Feb 28, 2014

Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort -- Just past midnight, in the dark early morning hours of Feb. 17, Lance Cpl. Tad Steadman and his friend Mike Hassan were working on their cars outside the Westbury Mews Apartments in Summersville, S.C., when Steadman, an air traffic controller aboard Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, noticed something wrong.

A small fire was beginning on the second story of the 900 block of the apartment building.

"I saw it’d started jumping up to the third deck," said Steadman, who immediately directed Hassan to call 911 and ran into the building. "I ran straight to the second story to the apartment it started in and started banging on the door. My first thought process was getting everyone out."

As Hassan, a former soldier, spoke with emergency services on the phone, Steadman continued alerting residents moving next to the apartment directly above the fire. Soon he was joined by Hassan and helped clear people out of the building.

"Military mode kicked in," Hassan said. "We were yelling 'fire, fire, fire' and 'get out.'"
read more here

Founder of veterans' group, defrauded VA and is convicted felon

Veteran's group founder defrauded V.A. of $178,000
PHILLY.COM
Sam Wood
Friday, February 28, 2014

A Philadelphia man who claimed to be the founder of the non-profit Veterans Support Group of America, was sentenced to 30 months in prison this week for defrauding the Department of Veterans Affairs out of $178,000 in healthcare and pension benefits.

Richard Gordon, 65, pretended to be his brother, “H.G.” who had served a tour of duty in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam war. He assumed H.G.’s identity in 2004 because he was a fugitive from justice after being convicted of a felony in New Jersey.

Richard Gordon, would have qualified for VA benefits, because had spent one year in the U.S. Marines but had been discharged after claiming a family hardship. But fugitives are prohibited from receiving V.A. benefits, according to court papers.
read more here