Desert Storm Veteran needs help for family

Fort Hood veteran in hospital with infection that could have killed him

KXXV ABC 25 News
Erin Heft
December 10, 2018

TEMPLE, TX (KXXV) -

A veteran out of Fort Hood lays in the hospital tonight with an infection that could have taken his life.

Kenny Kreiter served in the Army out of Fort Hood in the early 1990s. During his time spent serving our country, Kenny sustained knee trauma and ultimately left the military due to his sustained injuries.

The same knee injury that haunted him years ago, has now taken a turn for the worse.

On Nov. 19, he was admitted into the Olin E. Teague Veterans Medical Center, and he has been there ever since. He is fighting a staph infection that took hold in his bad knee.

As the breadwinner of his family, it has been hard financially on them during this time. Since he has not been able to work, Kenny's manager said he was gathering a $1,200 check to donate to the family to help make ends meet.

The manager had misled them.

It was that day that Kenny's fellow veteran friend started a GoFundMe campaign in Kenny's name, in hopes that it will help the family during this trying time.

KXXV Central Texas News Now

Police looking for gunman who killed Desert Storm Veteran

Surveillance video shows suspect's car in deadly shooting of Desert Storm vet

ABC 13 News
TJ Parker
November 30, 2018

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- New surveillance shows the moments a black Ford Fusion pulled up in front of a home where a veteran was killed during a home invasion.

A man was killed after a suspect broke into his home in northwest Harris County, deputies say. They say motive is robbery.

It happened around 11:30 a.m. Thursday in the 10800 block of Gates Randal Court.

The man has been identified as 47-year-old Leandro Morales Jr.

The Harris County Sheriff's Office said the victim and his wife were at home when the wife reported hearing a sound at the back door. The husband was shot while he was investigating the sound, deputies said.

The wife told investigators she heard a noise at the back door and then she heard a gunshot inside of the house.
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Tribute to Desert Storm Marines Painted Over!

Property Owner Paints Over Deep Ellum Mural Depicting U.S. Marines
NBC DWF 5 News
By Cory Smith
Jun 29, 2018

The mural depicted a group of U.S. Marines in Desert Storm. The group is standing in a circle with a large American flag in the background watching a soldier break dance.

In Deep Ellum, murals are more than works of art, they're part of the community's story.

"This is our way of communicating, our way of expressing ourselves," said local artist Preston Pannek.

On Friday Pannek felt like a piece of that story was erased when the mural he worked tirelessly to paint on a wall outside the Green Room was covered up with black paint.

Neighborhood residents and artists are outraged.

The building is owned by Westdale. Pannek called Friday to find out why it was covered and said he spoke with a the property manager.

"Right off the bat he was extremely rude and said 'It's gone. There is nothing I can do about it,'" said Pannek.

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PTSD On Trial: Desert Storm Veteran

Veteran with PTSD goes on trial
Written by Silver City Daily Press
April 18, 2017

A decorated Silver City veteran goes on trial today in U.S. District Court in Las Cruces for allegedly growing marijuana and having an unregistered firearm.

Trevor Lee Thayer, a 46-year-old father of three and decorated U.S. Army veteran with the 82nd Airborne, was charged in 2012 after a SWAT-style search of his residence by the DEA and ATF, according to a news release from his defense team at the Bowles Law Firm in Albuquerque. At that time, Thayer was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome and was in possession of a medical marijuana license, his attorneys said.

Thayer, a Desert Storm veteran, had applied to renew his medical marijuana license and paid a renewal fee, but had apparently not yet received the card at the time of the search. According to his defense team of Bob Gorence and Jason Bowles, further investigation had revealed that the state had cashed Thayer’s check but the equipment for printing the cards in Santa Fe was broken and that delayed the mailing of his card. The charges allege that Thayer did not have a valid medical marijuana card at the time of the 2012 search.
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Gulf War Veteran-Des Moines Police Officer Remembered For Service

Fallen West Des Moines officer found ways to serve others
The Des Moines Register
MacKenzie Elmer and Charly Haley
August 4, 2016

Miller graduated in 1987 and joined the Iowa National Guard, serving in the 186th Military Police Company. His company deployed to northern Saudi Arabia and Iraq during Desert Storm from January 1991 through May 1991.

Shawn Miller was remembered Thursday as a leader who found ways big and small to touch the community he served as a police officer for 26 years.

(Photo: West Des Moines Police Department)

The 47-year-old was killed in the line of duty Wednesday after colliding with a car while riding his personal motorcycle on U.S. Highway 169 in Dallas County. He was returning to West Des Moines after testifying in a hit-and-run case at the Dallas County Courthouse in Adel.

"It's always the good ones that go," said Joe Carter, of West Des Moines.

Carter knew Miller from the officer's off-duty job as a security guard at the Sheraton hotel in West Des Moines. Miller was always there to bring order during hectic weekends when Carter worked the hotel's front desk.
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PTSD On Trial: Three Tours of Duty Facing Trial After Shooting Neighbor

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.
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Operation Desert Storm Veteran Remembers the Price of War

Goshen Air Force veteran recalls Persian Gulf War
Associated Press
By BRUNO MATARAZZO JR.
Saturday, March 5, 2016

TORRINGTON, Conn. (AP) - Soldiers suffered burns, broken bones and amputations. The trip from the various MASH units to the military hospital in Germany during Operation Desert Storm meant an airplane ride for injured troops.

Often, Donald Sage of Goshen was with them.

Now retired, the Air Force master sergeant from the 74th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts was part of a crew of Air Force reserve soldiers who transported injured soldiers during the war in 1991.

The Persian Gulf War ended 25 years ago on Feb. 28, when President George H.W. Bush declared a ceasefire.

“Kuwait is liberated. Iraq’s army is defeated. Our military objectives are met,” Bush announced in a brief television address from the Oval Office the night before the cease fire.

It went into effect at midnight on the East Coast of the U.S.; 8 a.m. in Kuwait and Iraq.

“If you weren’t deployed over there, a lot of them don’t think that they deserve to be recognized, which is completely wrong,” Sage said. ” … If they weren’t doing their jobs back here, there wouldn’t be people over there.”
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Gulf War Veteran Lost Job Because of Service Dog

Desert storm veteran claims he was forced out of job because of service dog
WECT News
By: Susanna Black
Posted: Nov 05, 2015

Molly, Ian Radford's service dog, helps him daily to cope with PTSD. (Source:WECT)

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) - A disabled veteran is speaking out after he claims he was forced out of his job because of his service animal.

Ian Radford served in the U.S. Army during Desert Storm, and now deals with the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, an illness that seven to eight percent of people in the United States will deal with at some point in their lives. He relies on his service dog, Molly, to help him through his day to day life.

"I knew she would help me, but I didn't realize how much she would help me," Radford said.

She accompanies him everywhere he goes, including his job, until he said his employer, Cape Fear Eye Institute, began to raise concern about Molly being in the office.

At first, Radford said Molly stayed in a small room near his desk, but he noticed her training declining because she was not with him during the day.

"She needs to be in constant contact with me," Radford said. "She can see me, she can hear me, so she knows that's the guy I'm supposed to be looking out for."

His boss suggested he kennel Molly instead, so he agreed to give it a try. Radford said her training only got worse.
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Grounded Pilot Sues VA After 10 Years Medicated For What He Did Not Have

Former Navy Pilot Sues US Government over Bipolar Diagnosis
Associated Press
by Bill Draper
Oct 06, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A former Navy pilot has filed a $35 million lawsuit against the federal government alleging that a Veterans Affairs doctor misdiagnosed him with a mental illness that caused him to lose his ability to fly commercial airplanes and be wrongly treated for the disorder for a decade.

William Royster, 53, of Kansas City, said in the lawsuit filed Friday that a doctor at the local VA medical center diagnosed him with bipolar disorder in April 2004 and said he could not work in any capacity. The doctor also said the condition was permanent, he contends.

After he had been treated and medicated for more than 10 years for the disorder, Royster said a different psychiatrist at the medical center told him last November that he was not bipolar.

"From the review of the records, he (Mr. Royster) never had any manic symptoms and he never met the criteria for the diagnosis of bipolar disorder. ... Thus in my professional opinion, I do not believe that Mr. Royster has a diagnosis of bipolar disorder," Dr. Shreeja Kumar wrote on Nov. 18.

Royster was flying a fighter jet on a training mission associated with Desert Storm on June 4, 1996, when he was shot down, the lawsuit says. He was injured when he ejected from the jet and honorably discharged from the Navy that November.
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Story Behind Desert Storm Famous Photo Continues

Strangers linked by iconic Desert Storm photo finally meet 24 years later
Buffalo News
By Tim Graham
News Sports
Reporter
May 30, 2015

Veteran whose face came to symbolize Desert Storm meets comrade’s widow 24 years after tragedy that forever binds them

The face of war: Sgt. Ken Kozakiewicz, left, wails with grief after learning that the soldier in the body bag is fellow crewman Pvt. Andy Alaniz, in this February 1991 file photo. The widely published photo came to define the Persian Gulf War for many.

UNIONTOWN, Pa. – Twenty-four slow, burning years have passed since Sgt. Ken Kozakiewicz got wrecked to his soul.

Raw from a battle that ended moments before, dazed from the two missiles that smoked his Bradley Fighting Vehicle and weary from traversing an ungodly expanse of Iraq desert, Kozakiewicz did what any man would.

He read the name on the dead soldier’s identification card, looked away from the bloody body bag and wailed.

Kozakiewicz’s helpless, primal howl became the signature image of Operation Desert Storm. The picture, taken by David Turnley, showed war’s wicked truth and is considered one of military history’s most provocative photos.

Kozakiewicz, his broken left hand in a sling, had been guided into a medical evacuation helicopter after the Jalibah Airfield rout Feb. 27, 1991. The battle was among the final objectives of a dominant campaign to expel Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein’s army from neighboring Kuwait.

Kozakiewicz and Cpl. Mike Tsangarakis were about to be whisked away. Then a body bag was loaded onto the helicopter floor. Kozakiewicz demanded the dead soldier’s name.

A medic reluctantly handed Kozakiewicz the ID for 20-year-old Pvt. Andy Alaniz. In the center of the photo, Tsangarakis lifted his head bandages to glimpse the sack at his feet.
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Navy Vet's suicide note, plea to help others live with PTSD

Remembering John Bates, bringing awareness to PTSD
Sep 23, 2012
Written by
Lauren Scott

NORTH LITTLE ROCK Ark. (KTHV) -- A memorial service Sunday morning honored Petty Officer First Class John Bates' Bates. He was a member of the Navy before being medically discharged. He suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder before taking his life.

Family, friends and the Patriot Guard came out to the USS Razorback to honor the serviceman. Before Bates lost his battle to PTSD, he left his father a note, requesting he raise awareness to help others.

Bates' father tells us he is honoring that request, starting with today's service. He says, "It's amazing that everyone showed up and showed the support that they are."

John Studdard is proud of his son's accomplishments. He tells us his son served in the Navy for nine years, before being medically discharged after damaging his lungs in Desert Storm. Once Bates came back to the U.S., he worked for Government Services for 14 years before taking his life.

Bates left a note behind, admitting he had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and his last wish was to bring awareness so others don't battle with PTSD.
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Desert Storm Vet's battle still raging

The story of Mike Bailey needs to be read. He blogs over at
The Daily Bailey

Military experiment veterans 1941-now

Military & Veterans: Politics for the deserving

SSG "Beetle" Bailey's World

Mike (Beetle) Bailey
A disabled Army veteran who cares about his country, served in the military during the Vietnam Era, and Gulf War One. A "normal" man with a family and grandchildren who just wants a better nation for them, and for our nation to keep the "PROMISE" they made when we entered the military to care for us and our families if we were injured or killed on active duty.

Miami Veterans Affairs Examiner: Hmmmmmmmmm, very interestink
1 comment January 14, 8:32 PM
by Harmon Biehl,
Hey Vets, I have a Desert Storm Vet that has a very interesting tale to tell. In fact it is so interesting that it conjurs up wild scary stuff out of my past military service. I am visualising the guy on Laugh In wearing the German helmet smoking the cigarette and saying, "very interestink". The Vets name is Mike and so far all the information I have received from him has been bullet proof. See what you think!

Check it out.


Ham, I entered the US Army by enlisting on October 31, 1973 I went to Basic at Fort Ord, Ca , in January 1974 I went to Fort Polk La, for Infantry AIT in Jan - March 74. In mid March I was assigned to the 9th Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington.

I was placed in Company C, 2/47th Infantry 3rd Brigade North Fort Lewis, old WW2 Barracks.
My platoon Sergeant was SFC Crosby and my Squad Leader was a Vietnam Vet named SSG Cierlik. I was assigned as an M79 gunner. In May 1974 we had a notice placed on the company bulletin board asking for volunteers for a 2 month Temporary Duty assignment testing new uniforms and equipment for the battlefield of the future at a base on the East Coast, if we were interested to tell the 1SG and he would make sure we were sent on Wednesday at 1300 to the Main Post Theater for the briefing.

Several men from the battalion volunteered for it, myself and SP4 Raymond Chase volunteered from our platoon, we were in the same squad. We went to the briefing, and we both stayed and filled out the paperwork to volunteer, after hearing that we would only work 4 day weeks, Monday - Thursday, 0800-1200 hours daily unless we were doing a test. We would have every Friday, Saturday and Sunday off and could travel anywhere on the East Coast and would not be restricted to within 50 miles of base, as was normal back then. We would never have KP, Guard duty or any other type duties like CQ or CQ runner, when we were off, we would be off. They would pay us TDY pay of 2 dollars a day and we would also be authorized travel by Privately Owned Automobiles which would give us nine days travel East and back West. 18 days travel plus 35 dollars a day per diem.

Over 200 men volunteered from Fort Lewis that day, they were only accepting ten of us. SP4 Chase and I were both surprised to receive orders on the first of June sending us TDY to Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland on 16 June 1974 with arrival on 25 June 1974. On 13 June 1974 while pulling CQ Runner duty someone slipped a 4 way hit of windowpane LSD in my coke, I awoke the next morning in a padded cell at Madigan Army Medical Center .I was released about 1100 hours to my platoon Sergeant SFC Crosby.

He informed me that they had conducted a health and welfare at 0100 hours on the 14th and found over 1000 hots of LSD in a SP4 's wall locker from our platoon, he admitted putting it in my drink without my knowledge. The Company Commander decided to send me TDY with SP4 Chase leaving on the 16th of June. We left Fort Lewis with a copy of my hospitalization report for the doctors at Edgewood to show the "bad trip".

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VA Red Flag turned away veteran with tumor

Sick Redmond veteran says he's getting run-around

Jan 24, 2008 10:35 PM EST

VA denies 'red-flagging' means care is denied

By Nina Mehlhaf, KTVZ.COM

A Redmond veteran says he was refused medical treatment at the Bend VA Clinic, red-flagged and now can't get the treatment he needs for advanced cancer.

Now he's pleading with officials to fix the system, while they say he was a disturbance.

Pill bottles in the dozens line the bedside 52-year-old Jeffery Severns sleeps in in his Redmond living room.

The veteran was a combat nurse all over the world and served in Operation Desert Storm.

But cancer has spread into his shoulder, tailbone, spine, ribs and gall bladder.

Last spring, it was his throat that hurt him the most, so he went to the VA Clinic in Bend without an appointment and begged to be seen, but it didn't happen.

"Since [my vocal cords] were paralyzed, there was too much air going in and out," Severns explained Thursday. "I couldn't speak, so I would have to take in huge amounts of air to take in a few words. So they thought I was weird. They thought because I was anxious, because I thought I was going to die, they thought I was a threat."

Severns says he was red-flagged, a process the Department of Veterans Affairs uses when someone is disruptive, threatening or violent.

He says the Bend clinic refused him service, so he got a ride to Portland's VA Medical Center. He says doctors there were ready to help - until they looked at his file and saw the red flag.

He says he was escorted right out of the building and continues to be banned from the Bend office.

It wasn't until a private doctor at a Washington hospital scanned him and found what was wrong. He had a tumor the size of his heart, wrapped around his aorta.
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http://www.ktvz.com/Global/story.asp?S=7771848

Speechless, simply speechless.

More wounded, less doctors and nurses than during Desert Storm

Shortages could be hurting Army health care

By Laura Ungar - Gannett News Service
Posted : Saturday Jan 12, 2008 7:52:09 EST

Injured in a roadside blast in Iraq, Sgt. Gerald Cassidy was assigned to a new medical unit at Fort Knox, Ky., devoted to healing the wounds of war.

But instead of getting better, the brain-injured soldier from Westfield, Ind., was found dead in his barracks on Sept. 21. Preliminary reports show he may have been unconscious for days and dead for hours before someone checked on him.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., linked his death in part to inadequate staffing at the medical unit. Only about half of the positions in the unit were filled when Cassidy died. The Army is investigating the death and its cause, and three people have lost their jobs.

“By all indications, the enemy could not kill him, but our own government did,” Bayh told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Not intentionally, to be sure, but the end result apparently was the same.”

As more wounded soldiers return from war, critics say staff shortages and turnover have affected the quality of health care at Army posts across the nation.

Overall, the Army’s Medical Corps has downsized significantly since the Persian Gulf War in the 1990s, dropping from 5,400 to 4,300 physicians and from 4,600 to 3,400 nurses.

According to the Department of Defense, more than 29,000 service members have been wounded in action in Iraq or Afghanistan in the last six years, compared with fewer than 500 in Operation Desert Storm.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/army_doc_shortage_080114w/

This is what I've been screaming about since before the invasion of Iraq. No one was ready for any of them and they started to care too late for too many. I often wonder what would have been happening if the media didn't report on any of this. Then I wonder what could have been done if they reported on all of this sooner.

Watch wounded and waiting and see what this is doing to all of them.
PTSD Soldiers Wounded And Waiting
12 min - Aug 24, 2007 -
star(5.0,4)
(4 ratings)
And Waiting...The men and women we send into combat are wounded and waiting. Why? Why do they have to wait to have their wounds treated