Vietnam Veteran Got Emotional By Support Shown

Vietnam War veteran gets emotional homecoming decades after his service 
KETV 
Erin Hassanzadeh 
May 5, 2017

Elkhorn, NEB. — Tom Meradith said when he came back after two tours in Vietnam, his 1967 homecoming was anything but heartwarming. 

Meradith was one of the nearly 650 Vietnam veterans from Nebraska that took the honor flight in Washington DC on Monday. Meradith is the Chaplin for the Brookestone Meadows Care Center in Elkhorn. Staff, residents and patients there wanted to make sure he got a proper homecoming this time around. 

Around 75 people lined the halls of the center with yellow roses to surprise Meradith after the trip. The surprise brought him to tears. read more here

Nebraska National Guard Soldiers Deploy Again

Nebraska National Guard soldier prepares to leave wife and kids as he deploys
KETV 7 ABC News
James Wilcox
April 16, 2017

OMAHA, Neb.
Amid the crowd at Alfonzo W. Davis Middle School, there are soldiers ready to serve their country. There's also a father preparing to leave his family.

"I've been to Iraq twice, and that's actually where Sherri and I met," said Staff Sergeant Gale Maberry, with the Nebraska National Guard.

He met his wife while deployed overseas. Both were serving with the Nebraska National Guard.

Sherri Maberry said, "We were friends throughout the deployment. We started dating when we got back. Over ten years and two little ones later now."

Their kids are three-year-old Brianna and 10-month-old Matthew.

"The first steps, the first teeth. All these things I'm going to miss with these kids," said Staff Sgt. Maberry.

He'll miss both their birthdays while he's deployed to Cuba. It's his third deployment, but his first since they've been born.

"I worry about my wife. She's going to be home with these two little ones by herself, trying to take care of them," he said.

He's one of 50 Nebraska National Guard soldier's with the Omaha-based 402nd Military Police Battalion that'll spend nearly a year at Guantanamo Bay.
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Different Generations of Veterans Open Up About PTSD

Veterans open up about struggles with PTSD
WFAA
Sonia Azad
November 14, 2016

Up to 20 percent of Veterans who served in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom; 12 percent of Gulf War veterans; and an estimated 30 percent of Vietnam veterans, in their lifetime. 

Ed Reith, Jess Johnson and Timothy Jackson are bound by brotherhood.

“Primarily, we're warrior mentality,” said Reith, who served in Vietnam. “You don't want to admit weakness."

The three men are veterans who are haunted by the troubles of healing after war.

“You can't concentrate,” explained Johnson, a cancer survivor who served as a combat medic during the Vietnam War. “All you're thinking about is your friend who died in your arms -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Johnson is intimately familiar with the horrors of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“I don't want to hear any noise, I want to be quiet, I don't want to meet new people,” recalled Johnson. “There's always a residual effect to post traumatic stress, but my ability to interact with people has improved tremendously.”

Reith, a retired staff sergeant, still fights tremors in his hands.

“Getting mad and throwing a knife through a table is not a normal reaction,” said Reith. “Getting mad and throwing a water bottle is not a normal reaction."
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Another Fort Hood Solider Found Dead of Gunshot Wound

Soldier found dead in Texas identified as Bellevue native
By Source: Fort Hood Public Affairs Office
Sep 21, 2016


FORT HOOD, Texas A soldier killed by an apparent gunshot wound in Killeen, Texas has been identified as a Bellevue native.

Fort Hood officials identified him as Pvt. Nathan Joshua Berg, 20. He was found dead from an apparent gunshot wound Sept. 17 in Killeen, Texas.

Pvt. Berg, whose home of record is listed as Bellevue, Nebraska, entered active-duty military service in May 2016 as an combat engineer. He was assigned to Reception Detachment, United States Army Garrison, Fort Hood, Texas, since September 2016.
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SWAT Standoff Ended After 11 Hours

Scottsbluff man arrested after 11-hour standoff
Star Herald
MAUNETTE LOEKS and DEAN TORSKE
Star-Herald Staff
August 20, 2016

UPDATE, 11:15 A.M.: Sheriff Mark Overman has confirmed reports that the man involved in the stand-off is a Vietnam veteran who has been suffering some recent emotional issues. Family members called in the report, but the man has mostly made threats to himself. 

Standoff nearing its sixth hour SHANA EMERICK/Courtesy Photo

Neighbor Shana Emrick provided photos of SWAT team and bomb robot teams readying at the site of a standoff Saturday.

After more than 11 hours, a standoff at a rural residence ended with officers taking the man into custody.

Scotts Bluff County Sheriff’s deputies and the Scottsbluff SWAT Team took Daniel Converse, 65, of Scottsbluff, into custody at about 6:45 p.m. Sheriff Mark Overman reported authorities had obtained a warrant for the man, charging him with two felony counts of terroristic threats.

“I am just proud of all of the efforts of all of the officers that we were able to get this resolved. It took quite a while, but we got it resolved peacefully,” Overman said.

The standoff began at about 7:30 a.m. when Scotts Bluff County Sheriff’s deputies were called to a residence at County Road H and County Road 19, about six miles west of Scottsbluff. A woman reported to deputies that a man at the residence was armed with a hand grenade. He was outside of the residence when deputies initially arrived, but went back into the residence.

“They (deputies) challenged him and tried to get him to stop, but he retreated into his house,” Overman said. “He was holding something in his hands that deputies said was the size and shape of a grenade.”
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Nebraska County Jail Starts Veterans Unit

Douglas County jail in Omaha opens new military vet unit
The Columbus Telegram
Updated Feb 27, 2016

Justine Wall, the department's in-house program coordinator, said he's never seen a prison unit operate the way the veterans unit does, "where everybody looks out for each other, everybody takes care of each other."

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Douglas County jail in Omaha has a new prisoner unit to house military veterans, the first of its kind in Nebraska and one of several in jails nationwide.

The Douglas County Department of Corrections unit, which houses 25 to 30 men, opened about three months ago, The Omaha World-Herald reported (http://bit.ly/1KSG8d0 ) Saturday.

The special unit is based on the idea that many crimes committed by veterans are related to things that happened to them in the military.

"People who went down-range, they saw things, they have PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), they are back, they self-medicate, and they get in trouble," said Mick Wagoner, a lawyer with the Veterans Support Legal Network.

The unit is open to all male military veterans except for the most dangerous, predatory or disruptive people. People facing murder charges aren't eligible, nor are those with chronic behavior problems in jail.
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Omaha Firefighter Battles PTSD

Firefighter battles PTSD diagnosis after surviving explosion
WEAU News
Matthew Smith
February 25, 2016

"I know what to do at a fire. I know what to do at an emergency situation; that I've been trained to. Not having control over my mind, it's a lot worse."

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) -- It was all hands on deck for a two-alarm fire that injured seven in late January.

"We got very lucky," said Mike Terrell, one of the firefighters that was hurt that day. "We could have had five firefighters and a civilian dead like that." he said as he snapped his fingers.

He's referring to a massive fire at the Heafey-Hoffmann-Dworak and Cutler Funeral Home in Omaha. Terrell was inside the building when there was a major explosion.

Terrell was part of a two-man team. His crew's job was to turn off the gas line to the building that was inside.

While Terrell was inside he encountered the owner of the funeral home, and was trying to get him out when an explosion went off inside.

"Last thing I remember is trying to reach out with my right hand to shield Mr. Cutler from getting hurt," he said.

Terrell came to on his stomach; he dragged himself, crawling to get out.

Terrell was discharged from the hospital within a day, but 36 hours later he blacked out at his home. His wife frantically called 9-1-1.

"I don't remember the six guys being here, carrying myself downstairs, or any of that," Terrell explained.
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Gulf War Veteran Fights Back After Eviction Over Service Dog

Veteran sues over eviction due to service dog
Lincoln Journal Star
By NICHOLE MANNA
Updated 9 hrs ago

A veteran suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder filed a lawsuit against an Omaha apartment complex after they allegedly refused to give him accommodation to live with his service dog.

Dwaine Goings served in the Army and fought in the Persian Gulf War. As a result of combat, the decorated veteran suffers from PTSD and requires the assistance of his dog for daily support.

Goings signed a one-year lease in December 2014 with Hillsborough Pointe Apartments, at 14441 Sprague Court in Omaha.
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Fort Hood Death of Major Ruled Suicide

Army major's gunshot death near Fort Hood ruled a suicide
Army Times
Staff report
January 22, 2016

Wayman served two tours in Saudi Arabia, including during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He also deployed twice to Iraq and once to Kosovo.

Maj. Troy Wayman was found dead Jan. 16, 2015, in his home near Fort Hood, Texas.

(Photo: Army)

The Army on Friday released the name of a soldier who died Saturday from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Maj. Troy Donn Wayman, 44, was found in his home in Nolanville, Texas, near Fort Hood. He was pronounced dead by Bell County Justice of the Peace Bill Cooke shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday, according to the statement from First Army Division West officials.
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Iraq Veteran Turned Wheelchair into Snow Plow

Veteran doesn’t let being wheelchair bound keep him from plowing snow
WCMH News
By NBC4 Staff
Published: January 21, 2016

“The community has supported me immensely with my struggles and tough times as I had a leg amputated and my fight with brain cancer. This is my way of giving back.” Justin Anderson

BELLEVUE, Neb. (WCMH)– Veteran Justin Anderson doesn’t complain when it snows.

“I don’t want kids or parents having to go through the snow and possibly trip or hurt themselves,” Anderson told WOWT. “I had a half-dozen people stop to take a picture because they hadn’t seen a chair like this before.”

Anderson, who is an Iraq War Veteran and lives in Bellevue Nebraska, put a snow blade on his off-road wheelchair last year and now, with every snowfall, he does his part and more.
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Fallen Marine Reads To Son He Left Behind

Fallen veteran reads to son he never met
11Alive
November 4, 2015

On Nov. 15, 2004, a sniper's bullet killed Cpl. Shane Kielion in Fallujah, Iraq. Thirty minutes later, in Omaha, his wife April gave birth to their son, Shane Jr.

(WOWT) Every so often, Shane Kielion, Jr. finds himself flipping through a scrapbook about his father.

The 11-year-old Papillion, Nebraska resident loves the football pictures, especially since he just started playing football himself this year.

His dad had been quarterback at Omaha South.
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Missing In American Lost Another Veteran Escorting Remains

Crash kills motorcyclist escorting veteran's body, hurt 3 
Des Moines Register
Charly Haley
September 27, 2015

One motorcyclist died and three others were injured Saturday in Iowa when a car crashed into motorcyclists escorting the body of a veteran killed in a similar accident earlier this month.

The crash happened about 1 p.m. on Interstate Highway 80, near Atlantic, when nearly 125 motorcyclists and other vehicles were escorting veteran Bill Henry's cremated remains home to Omaha from the Freedom Rock landmark in western Iowa.

The Iowa State Patrol said Donald Kerby, 81, of Des Moines struck a motorcycle when he changed lanes to avoid a trailer parked on the road's shoulder. Ryan Lossing, 38, of Omaha died, and three other riders were hurt.

Henry was killed after a similar crash near Manassas, Va., earlier this month. The 69-year-old Army veteran died Sept. 14, two weeks after suffering head injuries from a crash that happened as he helped escort six West Coast veterans' remains to Arlington National Cemetery for burial.

Henry co-founded and helped lead the Nebraska chapter of the Missing in America Project, which works with funeral homes to return unclaimed remains of veterans to family members and arrange for military burials.

"It's a tragedy. They (Henry and Lossing) both went before their time," said Larry Schaber, a friend of Henry's who co-founded Nebraska's Missing in America Project chapter with him.
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Missing In America's Bill Henry Killed in Motorcycle Crash

Motorcycle crash kills advocate for Nebraska veterans
LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR
By ZACH PLUHACEK
8 hours ago

Bill Henry, an Army paratrooper during the Vietnam War who became an advocate for Nebraska veterans, died Monday of injuries suffered in an Aug. 30 motorcycle crash in Virginia.

This spring, Henry lobbied the Nebraska Legislature to enact a bill making it easier for funeral homes to turn over the unclaimed cremains of veterans to groups like Missing in America Project, which has a Nebraska chapter co-founded by Henry. The legislation passed without opposition.

Henry, 69, also assisted the Department of Veterans Affairs and Heroes of the Heartland Foundation to help veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, something he struggled with himself following three tours in Vietnam.

"He had control of his demons, and he was there to help the other soldiers," said Larry Schaber, a friend and co-founder of the Nebraska Missing in America Project chapter.

The day of the crash, Henry was part of a convoy escorting six veterans' cremains from California to be interred at Arlington National Cemetery. Henry stopped to take a picture, hopped back on his 2010 Victory Cross Country and tried to catch up.
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VA Medication for PTSD Veteran Sent to "Coo Coo Lane"

VA's use of ‘Coo-Coo Lane’ address still painful for Omaha veteran who has suffered from PTSD
Livewell Nebraska
By Steve Liewer / World-Herald staff writer
August 23, 2015

Florido said he is glad to learn that he wasn’t being targeted, but it will be hard to trust the VA again. He is still stinging from a separate incident seven years ago in which the VA falsely told him he was HIV positive, then waited 30 days to call back and correct the error.

Gabriel Florido opened a package from the U.S. government and discovered an insult.

The decorated Vietnam veteran — who has been treated for post-traumatic stress at the VA for decades — felt humiliated last summer when he realized someone at the Department of Veterans Affairs had altered his address and had mailed his medications to “Coo-Coo Lane.”

“I don’t understand it. I’m hurt, depressed,” said Florido, 64. “I don’t know how long I was a joke for them.”

Florido interprets the fake address as a gibe at his mental health issues. He contacted VA officials repeatedly to complain, but no one has ever apologized or explained to him why it happened.

Last week, in response to inquiries from The World-Herald, the VA finally responded. Officials said the mistake occurred at the Central Iowa VA Health Care System while a new employee was being trained to use the agency’s database.

“It was very unfortunate,” said Kristi Catrenich, a spokeswoman for the Central Iowa VA, “but neither intentional nor malicious.”

Tom Brown, president of the Nebraska Council of the Vietnam Veterans of America, was stunned to hear the story.

“Life is tough enough. He doesn’t need that kind of aggravation,” Brown said.
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Did Congress Care About These Veterans?

Every other year there is a crisis for our Veterans and it just doesn't end up getting fixed. How many times do we have to read about yet another shortfall for the VA? How many more times are we willing to allow members of Congress to make campaign promises they always forget about as soon as they get our votes? They House Veterans Affairs Committee has had since 1946 to do the right thing for veterans. When do they have to explain why they haven't done it?

VA extends funds for vets on verge of losing care
Norfolk Daily News
Steve Liewer
World-Herald service
August 2, 2015

The VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System will continue to fund all skilled and nonskilled care services for veterans who already are receiving them through Sept. 30, VA officials announced Friday. But they also said it remains a question mark whether such care will continue when a new budget year begins Oct. 1.

In June, the local VA had begun terminating the reimbursement for some veterans who receive home care and adult daycare through outside organizations like Comfort Keepers and the Franciscan Centre in Omaha. Funding for the program had run out because of a shortfall in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ health care budget.

After angry public hearings with VA Secretary Robert McDonald, Congress passed legislation late this week giving authority to move money from another fund to plug the shortfall. Without that authority, McDonald had said, some VA medical facilities might have to close temporarily. The president signed the bill on Friday.

In Nebraska and western Iowa, reimbursement for home care and adult daycare services for up to 1,900 veterans had been scheduled to end Saturday. Friday’s 11th-hour announcement was a welcome reprieve. “They are faxing us renewals like crazy,” said Jennifer Dil, a business development consultant with Comfort Keepers in Omaha. “This is fabulous news.”
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Boots On The Wire, War Not Left Behind

Local Soldiers Plan Trip to Honor Friend
WOWT News
By: Brian Mastre
Feb 09, 2015

“The last memory I have is of us throwing our boots on the wires,” said Hanson. “It's sort of a military tradition when you get out of the military – that you throw your boots on the power lines.

When you're on the battlefield, veterans will tell you that bond with your team is inseparable. But when you come home, it can be a struggle to fit in the slower pace of real life. Even more so if you've suffered a traumatic brain injury. Some local soldiers want to honor one of the men they came to respect serving in Iraq.

“He was one of the first people I met at Fort Bragg,” said Kyle Hanson of Omaha.

“He was one of the first people to take me around and show me the ropes. He quickly became one of my best friends,” said Jenna Vaughn of Lincoln.

Their friend – their fellow soldier, Specialist Jessie Lee Tolbert's final resting place became the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

He was 26.

“This man who was full of life,” said Vaughn. “He had the best smile and biggest blue eyes, and he was always there for his friends with a go-get-them attitude of honor that a lot of people don't get to see.”

“The last memory I have is of us throwing our boots on the wires,” said Hanson. “It's sort of a military tradition when you get out of the military – that you throw your boots on the power lines.

Last time I saw him, he was full of life. He said he'd catch us later – we had a beer and he got out of Dodge.”

Kyle Hanson and Jessie Tolbert provided base defense. They patrolled together as part of the 2-59th Field Service Company. They spent 13 months in Iraq.

“None of the phone numbers for him worked anymore,” said Kyle, “And so I went online to look for him – and I didn't find a phone number – but his obituary.”

Kyle knew his friend suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“It was often the topic of conversation when we would speak,” said Kyle.

But he thought Jessie was managing it best he could.

Friends acknowledge that on December 30th, 2012, he ended his own life.
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Toxic Battlefields Burn Pits Leave Afghanistan and Iraq Veterans Fighting for Their Lives

'Toxic battlefield'
Many tie Iraq, Afghanistan War veterans' illnesses to burn pits, dust
Live Well Nebraska
By Steve Liewer
World-Herald staff writer
Posted: Sunday, October 12, 2014

U.S. MARINE CORPS
Burn pits used especially in the early days of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars to destroy trash sent piles of wood, paper, medical waste, metal, plastics and even human waste up in smoke.

Jeff Flint remembers the sandstorms that regularly cloaked his military base in Iraq in a choking darkness.

And the black smoke, from the base’s fiery 10-acre garbage pit, that frequently blanketed both the gate where he stood guard and the tent where he slept during his yearlong deployment with the Nebraska National Guard in 2006-07.

“It was constant, 24 hours a day. It made you sick, nauseated,” said Flint, 45, of Fremont, Nebraska. “Put a dome over a city, and that’s what it was like.”

The hacking cough he developed more than seven years ago has never gone away. And it’s been joined by the tingling in his body and the numbness in his hands from multiple sclerosis, which he was diagnosed with two years after his return.

Flint is among tens of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan War vets who have developed chronic illnesses since returning from the war zones. Many — including Flint and his brother, John, who served with him and also has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis — are convinced they are sick because of noxious stuff they breathed in during their deployments.

“It’s just a toxic battlefield,” said Dan Sullivan, president and CEO of the Sergeant Sullivan Center, a nonprofit organization that supports veterans with post-deployment health problems.
“You’ve got a bunch of toxic stuff floating around in an atmosphere that picks everything up.
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Supportive Services for Veteran Families

SW-WRAP Awarded $3.4M for Veteran Administration Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) Program
Sweetwater NOW
by News Desk
August 26, 2014

GREEN RIVER – SW-WRAP, receives $1.4M for the renewal of its Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) Program by the U.S. Veterans Administration which has covered 48% of Wyoming since October 2013.

SW-WRAP also has received a second award in the amount of $2M for the remainder of Wyoming and an expansion into areas of Nebraska and South Dakota.

SW-WRAP’s Founder and CEO, Cathie Hughes, has been active in procuring funding to assist vulnerable populations to become self-sustaining throughout Wyoming since 2007. During the past several years she has recognized the need, and been vigorously involved in, identifying solutions to address veteran homelessness in Wyoming. In 2010, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reported that 13 percent of impoverished individual Veterans become homeless at some point during the year.

In 2009, the American Community Survey estimated that 1,356,610 Veterans lived in poverty. Additional statistics have shown that 23% of Wyoming’s homeless population are veterans.

In March 2014 Hughes applied for the renewal of the current SSVF Program project, which she initially procured in October 2013, plus an additional SSVF Project. She received notice of the multiple awards in August. SW-WRAP is the only Wyoming entity to receive the award for 2014-2015.
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Two agencies become one for remains of missing U.S. war dead

Hagel announces restructuring of POW/MIA remains offices
Stars and Stripes
By Chris Carroll
Published: March 31, 2014

WASHINGTON — A single Pentagon office will now be in charge of the troubled effort to identify and recover the remains of missing U.S. war dead, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Monday.

The order will create a “single accountable organization that has complete oversight of personnel accounting resources, research and operations,” overseen by the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Hagel said.

The decision follows a series of damning reports in the past year about the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, the two agencies that had primary responsibility for MIA recovery efforts. The two will now be combined, along with certain functions of the Air Force’s Life Sciences Equipment Laboratory, Hagel said.

To improve the search, identification and recovery process, DOD will create a centralized database and case management system containing all missing servicemembers’ information, Hagel said. The Armed Forces Medical Examiner working for the new agency will be the single identification authority. The medical examiner will oversee the science operations of the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, as well as satellite labs in Omaha, Neb., and Dayton, Ohio.

Families of the missing — who Hagel admitted have not always received clear communications from DOD — will also have a single point of contact with the new agency to make it easier for them to learn about search and identification activities.
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Wounded veteran running for Congress continues after cancer diagnosis

Col. Tom Brewer's campaign to continue during cancer treatment
World-Herald
By Robynn Tysver staff writer
January 12, 2014

ALYSSA SCHUKAR/THE WORLD-HERALD
Col. Tom Brewer said that his cancer was caught early and that his doctors say it is "very treatable," with a high rate of success and remission.

Col. Tom Brewer, who announced a surprising Republican primary challenge to U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith earlier this month, dropped another shocker Saturday.

He has leukemia.

And, Brewer says, he's staying in the race.

Brewer said that the cancer was caught early and that his doctors say it is “very treatable,” with a high rate of success and remission.

He said he was told that the form of cancer he has may be linked to his military service in Afghanistan, where he oversaw the use of herbicides to wipe out opium fields.

“I received confirmation of the cancer from my doctors just a few days before my announcement to run for Congress,” Brewer said in a written statement.

“After consulting with my physicians and family, we made the decision to go forward with the campaign as planned. My doctors are optimistic that the cancer was caught early; it is a very treatable form of leukemia, with a high percentage of success and remission.”

Brewer, 55, served 36 years in the military, with most of those years in the Nebraska National Guard. He has been deployed to Afghanistan six times and seriously wounded twice in ambushes.
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