Donald Trump said a lot of things that most of the veterans community find disturbing. From saying "I like people who weren't captured" going after John McCain, but insulted all POW's in the process. Trump said "the military will do what I tell them to"
More than a month later, about half of the money, roughly $3 million, has been donated to veterans’ charities, according to a summary released Thursday by the Trump campaign in response to inquiries from The Washington Post.
Trump added that it was “such an honor” and invited Dorfman to join him on the stage. But Trump saying that he “always wanted” to get the Purple Heart has generated a backlash among some veterans, who said that no one seeks a Purple Heart, which is given to those who are wounded or killed in combat.
The fact is, there have too many times when Trump showed disrespect for far too many and that is the most troubling thing of all. The job he wants includes being Commander-in-Chief but he does not seem all that interested in learning a damn thing about service members or veterans. It very well may be a case of too late to say he's sorry but it is not too late for him to learn just enough to understand why he hurt so many.
Military families to Trump: Apologize for comments to Khans (+video)
Associated Press By Jennifer McDermott and Seanna Adcox
AUGUST 2, 2016
Trump has been engaged in an emotionally charged feud with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, whose son was killed in Iraq by a suicide bomber in 2004.
Their sons were killed in Iraq about a week apart.
So when Karen Meredith heard the grieving parents of a decorated Muslim Army officer being belittled by Donald Trump, she cried.
Meredith said she hadn't wept over her son's death for a long time, but the Republican presidential nominee "ripped the wounds right open again."
"You don't attack one Gold Star family, because if you do, you're attacking a lot of us," Meredith, 62, of Mountain View, California, said Monday.
Trump has been engaged in an emotionally charged feud with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, whose son, Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed in Iraq by a suicide bomber on June 8, 2004. Trump stoked outrage by implying that Ghazala Khan did not speak while standing alongside her husband at last week's Democratic convention because of their Muslim faith. And he disputed their right to question his grasp of the Constitution.
Some of America's Gold Star families, or those who lost loved ones in war, have demanded that Trump apologize. read more here
Nadia McCaffrey is a friend of mine and has been a champion for military, veterans and families ever since her son Patrick was killed in action. Very, very proud of her.
One of the Gold Star mothers who signed an open letter to Donald Trump says the GOP presidential candidate's criticism of Humayun Khan's mother was "out of place."
It is about time someone brought out the worst part of all of this proving what we already knew. Suicide Mission Wounded Times Kathie Costos August 3, 2016
Brandon Ketchum served three tours of duty overseas. He deployed twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan. He’d been struggling with PTSD and substance abuse so he made an emergency appointment at the Iowa City VA Medical Center on July 7th. Afterward, he posted on social media about not being admitted even though he requested it and explained to a doctor that he felt his safety and health were in jeopardy. His family thinks he might still be here today had he gotten the help he was looking for.
Three Senators want answers. Joni Ernst, Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson are acting as if nothing like this happened before, even though they should all know better. Everyone should know better after all these years, but it has all gotten worse. There were plenty of excuses when troops came home after all wars needing help to heal but after surviving combat, they could not survive being back home. We talked about all of it in whispers, that is when we were not suffering in silence. No one understood and the media did not care, so the American public didn't either. It is still happening now when 65% of the suicides within the veterans community end the lives of those over the age of 50. The press has younger veterans thinking it is all about their generation and all these problems never happened before. The truth is, as more and more is being done, there are more and more ending their own lives. I know, big shocker there since the VA reported suicides at 22 a day and now they report it is 20 a day.
In the report from the VA there is a chart showing that in 1999 they had the numbers the same but once digging was done, it turned out we also had about 7 million more veterans in the country at the time according to the US Census reports. Why aren't those Senators demanding answers from everyone? How about they start with the military paying billions in awareness and prevention when the younger generation of veterans commit suicide triple their civilian peer rate after all that "training" was provided to them? After all, you'd think the Senators would find it important enough considering the military also had to admit that training was not even good enough to keep non-deployed from committing suicide, so the chances of keeping those with multiple deployments alive back home were slim to none. How about they question the fact that the Army released a study on re-deployments showing that each one increased the risk of PTSD by 50% all the way back in 2006, yet kept doing them anyway? How about they pay attention to the fact that after all the training started, suicide increased and kept increasing even after the number of enlisted went down? Seems that would be a good thing to have answers for if they really think that "one is too many suicides." How about they get answers from all the charities popping up all over the country raising money so they can raise awareness that veterans are still killing themselves instead of healing? How the hell can telling them something they already know do any of them any good? While we're on the subject, why should they make their living off the suicides in the first place? Veterans are not being told what they need to know, where they can go for help and their families are still left clueless yet folks are making a lot of money for nothing getting any better. Brandon Ketchum tried to get help from the VA and did not get it. He turned to Facebook to say goodbye. Why couldn't he turn to any of the charities and groups out there doing pushups, taking walks and doing interviews with the press? Why couldn't he turn to all the folks that were supposed to be made aware of what those charities claimed they were doing? What is it going to take for this country to wake up and understand that veterans had better chances of staying alive with bullets and bombs than they do now and that is the most deplorable thing of all. When they heal the first thing they want to do is share it with other veterans and be there for them so they can heal too. That is after they get over being pissed off they tried to commit suicide because no one told them what they actually needed to hear so they could live and go on a stop suicide mission of their own.
Big difference between courage and ego, between sacrifice and swallowing pride. Trump's lack of respect for the wounded must leave him wondering why everyone is so upset.
Double Amputee Veteran Tammy Duckworth Blasts Trump for Joking About How Easy it Was to Get Purple Heart People
Char Adams
August 3, 2016
Donald Trump is facing rebukes from military veterans again – this time for making a joke about how easy it is to get a Purple Heart after a veteran handed him one as a gift at a rally on Tuesday.
Illinois Rep. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who lost both of her legs when her helicopter was shot down in 2004, led the way, posting a photo of herself in a hospital bed wearing the medal on her gown.
"This is how one usually looks when you are awarded a Purple Heart. Nothing easy about it," Tammy Duckworth
She was joined by other veterans who posted pictures with their Purple Hearts, medals awarded only to servicemen and women who are wounded or killed in uniform. read more here
Massachusetts Congressman, Veteran Lashes Out at Donald Trump Beacon Hill Patch
By Alison Bauter (Patch Staff)
August 2, 2016
"As a veteran, I can't imagine what it would be like if Donald Trump treated my mom that way." Rep. Seth Moulton
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton had harsh words for Trump in light of the GOP nominee's attacks on Gold Star Khan family.
Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton had those and other withering words for Donald Trump Tuesday, joining a bipartisan barrage of condemnation in the wake of the Republican presidential nominee's comments toward a family whose son died serving in Iraq.
Trump has been taking heavy fire since critiquing Khizr and Ghazala Khan, Gold Star parents of Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed while serving in Iraq by a car bomber. Khizr Khan spoke against the GOP nominee at this year's Democratic National Convention, prompting harsh words in return from Trump.
Khan and his wife have both condemned Trump, saying he "knows nothing of sacrifice." read more here
Former Fort Sill commander found dead Sunday in Alabama NewsOK
Silas Allen by Silas Allen
Published: August 2, 2016
Maj. Gen. John Rossi, the former commanding general at Fort Sill, died Sunday at a U.S. Army installation in Alabama, officials said.
Rossi, 55, was found dead Sunday at Redstone Arsenal, an Army installation near Huntsville, Ala., officials at the post said.
Rossi left Fort Sill last month to head up the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command at Redstone Arsenal. John Cummings, a Redstone Arsenal spokesman, said Rossi arrived on post about a week before his death, but hadn't taken command of the missile defense command.
Rossi's cause of death remains under investigation, officials said.
A native of Long Island, N.Y., Rossi graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1983 and was commissioned as an air defense artillery officer.
He served in South Korea, Germany, Iraq and southwest Asia, as well as several assignments in the United States, before coming to Fort Sill in 2014. He remained at the southwest Oklahoma post until he relinquished command at a ceremony last month. read more here
Man Gives Car To Woman Who Lost All Hope After Marine Son Killed Himself: 'I Know What It's Like' Inside Edition
by Deborah Hastings
August 1, 2016
Her son, a Marine who served overseas, committed suicide one year ago, Nunez told Newberry. He had PTSD and shot himself, leaving behind two young children. The woman, who is in her 60s, “was talking about killing herself,” Newberry said. “She said, ‘I don’t have any friends.”
Now you have a friend, Newberry told her. “I’m going to come out here every day and talk to you.”
He had been noticing her every day for the past few weeks — a tiny woman walking past his auto shop, burdened by bags of groceries or totes bulging with belongings.
She works as a janitor at a high school just one street over from Richard Newberry’s tire and auto store in St. Petersburg, Florida.
On Friday, as Newberry was inside doing paperwork, the woman “stopped and looked in at me and I could tell she was upset,” Newberry told InsideEdition.com Monday.
So he walked outside and began to speak to Ernestina Nunez, asking why she seemed so distraught.
read more here
Marine Veteran Accused in Shooting Death Struggled after Military Tour The Leader-Telegram
by Julian Emerson
Aug 02, 2016
Fiore, Blechinger and Knetter said their friend was adversely impacted by the explosion of a military vehicle during his last tour of duty that killed his best friend and others her served with. The blast resulted in hearing loss and a concussion for Helmbrecht. But the emotional damage went deeper, they said.
Family and friends of the suspect in the fatal shooting of his 36-year-old neighbor Saturday morning said the tragedy likely could have been prevented had he received help with mental health problems that had worsened significantly in recent months.
Police arrested Shane M. Helmbrecht, 44, after they say he shot and killed Jenny Ward at her home at 105 Simon Court on Eau Claire's north side near Mount Simon Park. On Monday Eau Claire County Judge Jon Theisen set a $1 million bond for Helmbrecht, who told police he ingested methamphetamine the day before shooting Ward and has no mental health issues.
"This wasn't Shane," an emotional Tammy Fiore, a friend of Helmbrecht's, said of the shooting. "It was his mental illness ... People tried to get (Helmbrecht) help. They tried lots of times. But none of those efforts worked, and this is the result."
Friends said Helmbrecht, 44, a decorated military veteran, served tours of duty in Operation Desert Storm and later in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he cleared roadside bombs with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. He was once a fun-loving, humorous, caring friend who was a talented musician and carpenter, his friends said. He went out of his way to help others in need, they said, and had a big personality and a zest for life. read more here
Back from being unplugged on mini vacation. I spent the weekend in New England with family and it was wonderful. Back in the real world of politics more unusual than the pitiful garbage being slung on both sides, the only things I cannot hold back on are politicians claiming the trouble with the VA is someone else's fault and a candidate going after a grieving Gold Star Mom. Donald Trump has a habit of using veterans. We're all used to that since most politicians do it. The thing that got me was when he said that he loves war yet got deferments to stay out of Vietnam. He didn't love it so much back then when his own life would be put in danger.
It also seems that he cannot even let his pride go for a family who lost their son in combat while saving the lives of others.
Showing a characteristic refusal to back down from a fight, Trump took the almost unthinkable step of publicly escalating a feud with the parents of fallen US solider, Capt. Humayun Khan, who blasted Trump at last week's Democratic convention as unfit for the presidency.
Trump doesn't back down from a fight when it is about him but what kind of a message did this send to those putting their lives on the line everyday for the sake of others if he cannot even put his pride on the line? Yet he wants to be Commander-in-Chief or does he want to be dictator? The thing that keeps getting missed is that there we had a hero leader, loving his men so much he was prepared to do whatever he had to do so that they could survive. It didn't matter to him what faith they practiced because they had faith in him and each other. It did not matter to him how they voted because they were putting each other first. Too bad it didn't matter to Trump enough to let this Dad say what he wanted to say and let it go simply out of respect for the son who gave his life. He could not even let this Mom's silence go without saying something about her. How much do you want to bet that the story would have dropped off the news cycle in a day or so had he simply shown true leadership instead of hot headed ego? The other thing is there seems to still be a line of politicians hoping folks forget they have been in charge of the way veterans have been treated all along and the mess is actually their fault because they didn't bother to fix any of it. Read the history of the VA and see what I mean. (And on a side note, anyone screaming when this hero was talking is an idiot. We heard enough of that when Vietnam veterans came home. If you cannot at least respect someone like Groberg, who can you respect besides yourself?)
"Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims," said Khan, whose Army captain son, Humayun Khan, died when he ran to halt a vehicle carrying a suicide bomber, likely saving the lives of troops on guard duty he had told to take cover and those at a mess hall nearby.
UPDATE Two Portland Police officers came knocking Monday afternoon, along with the stolen bike they found only 3 blocks away. Vietnam Veteran, double-amputee's custom hand bike stolen from driveway
KATU by Cory Marshall
August 1st 2016
PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) - The search is on for a Vietnam Veteran's custom hand bike that was stolen late Saturday afternoon from his driveway in Southeast Portland.
The theft happened sometime in a 1.5-hour window as Brian Willson went inside to get lunch.
"(I) came out before 4 p.m. to do another errand and it was gone. I just had to sit down for a second and think, okay, what am I going to do now?" Willson, told KATU News.
Willson is a double-amputee and relies on the hand bike (pictured above in a photo by Jonathan Maus of bikeportland.org) to get around. To really understand the importance of the cycle, you have to go back about 30-years to a peaceful protest gone awry. read more here
