Homeward Bound stories worthy of a lot more than this

Homeward Bound on the Military Channel has been on for an hour. There have been some great stories so far, but just now I had to shut it off when they were asking for donations. Among the charities receiving donations is the Wounded Warrior Project. Among other issues with this group is the fact they do not want to help older veterans. They only want certain Iraq and Afghanistan veterans even though the older veterans have suffered longer with less help.

This special on the Military Channel is supposed to be about all veterans with PTSD and TBI. Did they bother to check anything? Did they bother to find out who is doing what on both of these wounds? Did they even bother to check to see how many military suicides there were last year? No because they got that wrong too. Why does everyone keep forgetting about National Guards and Reservists? There were over 140 of them taking their own lives along with regular military members.

You can watch it live now so you can hear some of their stories. The errors in this program should in no way diminish their lives or their suffering any more than their courage should be forgotten.

To say I am disappointed is an understatement. I just hope the next time they decide to do something for this cause, they do a lot more homework.

Is Wounded Warrior Project a country crock? there are many comments about this group, just like some of the private ones I received that caused me to do some checking on my own. This is just one of them.

My experience with the Wounded Warrior Project is that they camp out at the Wounded Warrior Transition Units and really do nothing beyond getting their media shots with “eye candy”. I have read about the bags of clothes they give to those injured once they arrive at the major military hospitals from down range. This is great but don’t twist the story to show that had you (WWP) not given our injured care bags with clothes, the injured would go without. I would like to see any command at the military hospitals even think of letting an injured Service-Member go without clothes, they would be slammed. Service-Members transitioning through the WTU units are very well taken care of as well as their families. There will always be complaints but trust me and I know, go through the medical process due to injuries and not have a WTU and be thrown out on your ear with injuries from war…. It really sucks….WWP says they help Veterans…Well everyone I referred to them got no help at all. The folks I referred to them were not at a WTU or even near a military base and were not retired due to their injuries….So these Veterans are really on hard times and could use help…As stated before, the WWP only goes after “eye candy” and when the cameras’ are rolling, they are there… They aren’t helping any Veterans here in SW Virginia, hell the nearest rep is in NC camped out at FT. Bragg

I've been doing this for over 30 years now and I can tell you that there are a lot of great groups in this country doing the work and not in the business of getting money or publicity.


UPDATE watching live

Speech by John Kerry talked about the battlefield wounds but he didn't mention how many triple amputees survived Vietnam. Two of them are members of DAV Chapter 16 out of Orlando Florida.  Yes, two triple amputees. He also made it sound as if PTSD and TBI are new, but they are far from it and that is really disgraceful considering that research began to spread out over 40 years ago.

The DAV commissioned a study The Etiology of Combat related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by Jim Goodwin, Psy.D.  In it they knew of 500,000 Vietnam veterans with PTSD as of 1978.  The DAV had established 70 veterans centers around the country and they were talking to families so we could know what our veterans came home with more than our parents understood what came home with Korean War and WWII veterans.

This nation has known few years of peace when young men were free from risking their lives but have had even less years when young men were free of the price of wars they had already fought. So many years that there should be absolutely no excuse offered or accepted for the condition of their returning to these shores.

UPDATE at 9:55 Dr. Tim talking about PTSD veterans.  Yep the same man who had a show called “Heroes to Monsters?” as if there was no problem at all calling it that until it caused so much public outrage, they changed the name of the show for rebroadcast.

UPDATE at 10:01 WWP is the subject. Good Lord! Just like all commercials for WWP they talk about the problem but really don't say what they are doing on PTSD or TBI, because frankly, their site links to other charities. People get angry when they wonder how they can lie about what they do, then I point out they never really say they are doing anything at all. They show the issues, the missing limbs but never say they do anything about any of it.

American Military Spouse group was fabulous! Fell in love with them when they were on America's Got Talent. I think I'm done so that I can end on a happy note.