Friday, April 25, 2014

Ohio GOP Legislator Accused of Insulting Veterans In Hearing

Ohio GOP Legislator Accused of Insulting Veterans In Hearing
The Huffington Post
by Andrew Perez
Posted: 04/24/2014

A Republican lawmaker in Ohio insulted veterans in a hearing he led this month on renewable-energy standards, according to a veteran in attendance.

Iraq War veteran Dan Sawmiller, who is also the Sierra Club's senior campaign representative for Ohio and Kentucky, wrote a letter to the state Senate president on April 14 criticizing Sen. Bill Seitz (R), the Public Utilities Committee chairman, for calling the hearing a "Bataan Death March." From Sawmiller's letter:

On April 9, 2014, I testified as a representative of the Sierra Club in front of your Senate’s Public Utilities Committee, chaired by Senator Bill Seitz. Just before my testimony, the Senator referred to Ohio’s existing clean energy law as a “Bataan Death March.” In case you’re not familiar, the Bataan Death March consisted of 80,000 American and Filipino soldiers who were victims of a heinous war crime where captured troops were forced to march 80 miles through the jungle of the Philippines. They were starved, physically abused, tortured and brutally murdered. As many as 650 American soldiers were killed during the march alone. Those who made it through were tortured as prisoners of war and killed on Japan-bound ships. The selfless service of these veterans is something to be honored, not mocked.

Sawmiller also noted that Seitz opened a pack of cigarettes before leaving the room during one veteran's testimony.

"This behavior is completely devoid of any honor or respect, and is not becoming of the Ohio Senate or the State of Ohio," he added.
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Where is the safety net for Wounded Warriors?

Remote care for wounded warriors raises concern
Army Times
Joe Gould
Staff Reporter
Apr. 24, 2014
“Of 27,000, you’re going to manage at least 20,000 in a remote manner, so how can we be assured you won’t have the same problem other services have had, or return to 10 years ago,” Stone said. “What’s the safety net?”

The potential for thousands of wounded soldiers to have to rely on remote medical care has some Defense Department healthcare officials challenging Army logic.

Members of the Recovering Warrior Task Force, an organization which oversees the services’ wounded warrior programs, at a recent business meeting in Arlington, Va., questioned the wisdom of providing remote care to soldiers with complicated healthcare needs.

“When I take your website and your [presentation], how do we not assume that your intent is to indirectly manage this very complex population?” Dr. Richard Stone, a member of the task force, asked Tom Webb, deputy to the commander of Army Warrior Transition Command, on April 16.

Driven by a shrinking wounded warrior population, the Army announced in January it would restructure community-based care for wounded warriors. It will launch 13 new Community Care Units across 11 installations by Sept. 30, and mothball its nine Community-Based Warrior Transition Units, which primarily provide care for Reserve and National Guard troops. These units support more than 1,300 soldiers.

Community-Based Warrior Transition Units provide remote management to soldiers whose medical needs were not deemed complex and are able to live with their families. These units are to be replaced by Community Care Units nested within Warrior Transition Battalions on active-duty Army installations, cutting administrative overhead.
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Thursday, April 24, 2014

Discharged Marine Crucified Himself on Easter

Discharged Marine regrets crucifying himself in public
Marine Corps Times
By Hope Hodge Seck
Staff Writer
Apr. 23, 2014

Joshua Klohr felt that no one was paying attention to his claims of injustice.

So, the former Marine sergeant donned his old dress blues Sunday and hung himself on a ten-foot cross across from the state capitol in Denver, Colo., where 60,000 Coloradoans were celebrating 4/20, the unofficial holiday of marijuana users.

While serving as a Marine recruiter in Boulder, Colo., Klohr said he struggled to make recruiting goals, despite working 14-16 hours a day. He refused to “fraud” enlistees into the Corps by ignoring factors that would disqualify them from service, he said, and ultimately said he could not do what was required of him in the region, which his superiors interpreted as quitting. When he went to trial, he said, he was not allowed to testify in his own defense, and was quickly found guilty and harshly punished.

Klohr admits that he hid information about himself in order to join the Marine Corps. He enlisted despite having been expelled from school, having physical problems — including asthma — and a criminal record. According to reports from the time, Klohr was charged by Denver police in 2005 with setting a cat on fire and throwing it off a roof. He was 18 at the time.
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Controversy Surrounds Wounded Warriors, Lavish Salaries, and White House

Controversy Surrounds Wounded Warriors, Lavish Salaries, and White House
IVN
By Ryan Schuette
April 23, 2014

Last week, President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki welcomed wounded veterans to Soldier Ride, one in a series of cycling events that the Wounded Warrior Project organizes every year.

The White House rollout was one of 19 the Florida-based nonprofit plans to hold with amputee veterans, whom it equips with adaptive bicycles specially made to fit each veteran’s specific handicap.

The South Lawn kickoff on Thursday was the fifth for the Wounded Warrior Project and represents its ascension to a place in the national spotlight that other charities can only covet.

Left unmentioned at the media-friendly reception with the president was a lawsuit in the works against a disabled Indiana veteran who claims the Wounded Warrior Project didn’t do much for wounded vets with the more than $150 million in revenue it raised in 2012.
"They want to send a message to every other person who wants to speak out against (the Wounded Warrior Project)."
Ret. Staff Sgt. Alex Graham

The defendant, Ret. Staff Sgt. Alex Graham — a veteran of combat operations in Iraq with diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder — first criticized the charity in a blog post he made last year, with claims the Wounded Warrior Project spent little on wounded vets and paid senior execs lavish salaries. The post appeared on the now-defunct website for Help Indiana Vets, his own tax-exempt charity, which he says he had to shut down in the wake of the lawsuit.

That was a post heard around the world.

Graham’s claims quickly ricocheted around the Internet, with numerous blogs — including Veterans Today, a news website and benefits forum — publishing his article and amplifying a Google search that now pulls up 84,000 results for the phrase “Wounded Warrior Project scam.”

The charity subsequently filed charges against Graham in December that accused the vet of defamation and unfair business competition, alleging that his post confused donors and led to a $75,000 drop-off in contributions.
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Help Indiana Vets Responds to Wounded Warrior Project lawsuit against them

Wounded Warrior Project sues veterans charity

Army's Wounded Warrior Program Helps Recovery

This is Wounded Warrior Program,,,,,not Project
Wounded Warrior Program Highlights Amputee Soldiers Recovery
AFRO.com
by Maria Adebola
April 23, 2014

The 10th anniversary of the U.S. Army's Wounded Warrior Program (AW2) was celebrated April 22. AW2, joining with the U.S. Army Warrior Transition Command (WTC), hosted a media and bloggers roundtable to commemorate the years of successful service.

The panel featured three wounded soldiers, each sharing their story on recover and successful transition into Continuation on Active Duty (COAD) through AW2.

Along with soldiers Staff Sgt. Julio Larrea, Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Redman, and Spc. Joshua Budd, Col. Johnny Davis, director of the Army Wounded Warrior Program, and Thomas Webb, acting commander of the Warrior Transition Command, spoke about the AW2's role –advocating for wounded soldiers and their families.

"What makes AW2 unique is that we support the most severely wounded, and that our support is completely personalized," said Col. Johnny Davis. "Each soldier is assigned an AW2 advocate as soon as they're found eligible, and our AW2 Advocates work with each soldier and family to resolve whatever challenges they're facing, at whatever point of their recovery and transition."

The AW2 program is a major component of the Army's Warrior and Transition Program (WCTP), established in 2004 to support wounded, ill, and injured soldiers, including veterans and their families, with the recovery and reintegration process they will need to reach a stated of independence.
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Police in New South Wales with PTSD kept on job to save money?

Psychologist blames police compo scheme for traumatised officers not leaving the force
ABC Australia
By Giselle Wakatama
Updated 2 hours 19 minutes ago

A Hunter Valley psychologist says traumatised and injured police officers who should be leaving the force are staying on because of an overhaul of the New South Wales government's compensation scheme.

The state's death and disability scheme was changed in 2012 to rein in costs but since then, there has been a 40 per cent drop in police officers leaving the force.

Newcastle psychologist Roger Peters has treated thousands of officers but says many should get out.

"People who have suffered post traumatic stress disorder are more likely to suffer it again if they're exposed to trauma," he said.

"In the case of New South Wales police, trauma is their everyday currency."
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Marine's wife grieves after burn pit in Iraq killed husband in Colorado

'Our plan was to grow old together': Heartbroken widow of decorated Marine, 33, who succumbed to cancer blames his early death on controversial burn pits in Iraq
Daily Mail UK
By SNEJANA FARBEROV
23 April 2014

The family of a retired 33-year-old U.S. Marine who succumbed to cancer over the weekend believe that his untimely death was the direct result of his exposure to open-air burn pits in Iraq.

Sean Terry, a married father of three from Littleton, Colorado, passed away Saturday after a seven-month battle with terminal esophageal cancer.

‘We had plans. Our plans were to grow old together and raise our kids together. We can't do that now,’ his wife Robyn Terry told 9News just days before his death.

Mrs Terry and the veteran's friends insist that the Marine who earned a Purple Heart while serving in Iraq in 2005-2006 was sickened by toxins from burns pits, which for years had been used in Iraq and Afghanistan to dispose of waste.

According to information available on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs site, at this time, research does not show evidence of long-term health problems associated with exposure to burn pits.

However, the agency's site concedes that 'toxins in burns pits may affect the skin, eyes, respiratory respiratory and cardiovascular systems, gastrointestinal tract and internal organs.’

The portal goes on to say that most of the irritation is temporary and resolves once the exposure is gone. ‘This includes eye irritation and burning, coughing and throat irritation, breathing difficulties, and skin itching and rashes,’ the statement reads.

The VA's page also cites a 2011 Institute of Medicine study, which found that high levels of fine dust and pollution in Iraq and Afghanistan 'may pose a greater danger to respiratory illnesses than exposure to burn pits.'
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Veterans on secret VA list in Arizona died waiting for care

A fatal wait: Veterans languish and die on a VA hospital's secret list
CNN Investigations
By Scott Bronstein and Drew Griffin
April 23, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
CNN has been reporting on delays in appointments and veterans' deaths
New revelations of 40 deaths involving Phoenix VA are perhaps the most disturbing yet
Retired VA doctor says there's an official wait list that he calls a sham
He says the real list is kept secret and has wait times that stretch into the months

(CNN) -- At least 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system, many of whom were placed on a secret waiting list.

The secret list was part of an elaborate scheme designed by Veterans Affairs managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor, according to a recently retired top VA doctor and several high-level sources.

For six months, CNN has been reporting on extended delays in health care appointments suffered by veterans across the country and who died while waiting for appointments and care. But the new revelations about the Phoenix VA are perhaps the most disturbing and striking to come to light thus far.

Internal e-mails obtained by CNN show that top management at the VA hospital in Arizona knew about the practice and even defended it.

Dr. Sam Foote just retired after spending 24 years with the VA system in Phoenix. The veteran doctor told CNN in an exclusive interview that the Phoenix VA works off two lists for patient appointments:
There's an "official" list that's shared with officials in Washington and shows the VA has been providing timely appointments, which Foote calls a sham list. And then there's the real list that's hidden from outsiders, where wait times can last more than a year.
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Four American workers shot at the CURE hospital in Afghanistan

3 American workers shot, killed in Afghan hospital
CNN
By Qadir Siddiqui and Holly Yan
April 24, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
4 American hospital workers were shot, 3 fatally
Police: A guard at the hospital opened fire
The guard also shot himself but survived, police say
It's the latest in a series of deadly attacks against foreigners

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- At least three American hospital workers in Afghanistan were killed Thursday by an officer guarding the hospital, Kabul police said.

The three men killed were among four American workers shot at the CURE hospital in downtown Kabul, city police spokesman Hashmatullah Stanekzai said.

The police guard shot himself but survived, Stanekzai said. The motive for the attack was not immediately clear. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul confirmed the shooting.

She was married at 6 years old Can Afghan rappers turn out youth vote? Afghans vote for future despite threats "With great sadness we confirm that three Americans were killed in the attack on CURE Hospital," the embassy tweeted. "No other information will be released at this time."
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Dr. Jerry Umanos was a pediatrician at Lawndale Christian Health Center

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Newest Medal of Honor Hero Talks About Battle With PTSD

Medal of Honor nominee urges fellow soldiers to get help for PTSD
Associated Press
Article by: MITCH WEISS
April 23, 2014

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For U.S. Army Sergeant Kyle White, the firefight began without warning.

White's platoon left a meeting with village elders in Afghanistan after an interpreter heard suspicious chatter on an Army radio.

On the way back to their outpost, White's platoon was ambushed. Over the next few hours, White put his own life at risk to save fellow service members during the Nov. 8, 2007 attack.

"I remember thinking multiple times that day I wasn't going to make it," said White, who will be awarded the Medal of Honor next month by President Barack Obama.

On Wednesday, the 27-year-old White, who now lives in Charlotte, was honored by the North Carolina military community. Gov. Pat McCrory, who was at the gathering, called White a "true American hero."

In his first public discussion of the attack, White made a brief statement and then answered questions about the firefight that killed five members of his platoon and a Marine embedded with his unit.

He also discussed his life since leaving the Army in May, 2011. The Seattle native graduated from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte with a finance degree, and he now works as an investment analyst at a bank in North Carolina's largest city.

White said that after the ambush, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He urged veterans suffering from the illness to get help.
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