Navy SEAL's 3.1-Mile Swim For SEAL Families

Tampa Bay Frogman Swim benefits Navy SEAL Foundation
Tampa Bay Times
Terry Tomalin
Times Outdoors/Fitness Editor
January 15, 2016

"Nothing can prepare you for that. But that is where he wanted to be. That is what he wanted to do."
Ginny Feeks.

Patrick Feeks, a U.S. Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan, will be honored

by several family members at this year's Tampa Bay Frogman Swim.

(Courtesy of Thomas Feeks)

When most 8-year-old boys played Army in the woods, Patrick Feeks dreamed of being a Navy SEAL. He never wanted to be anything else.

"He was very focused and determined from an early age," said father Thomas Feeks, a retired Navy officer. "He was passionate. … Nothing could stand in his way."

The first time he tried to enlist, the Navy told him that he had failed his eye test. So Feeks shopped until he could find a doctor to correct his vision.

"He tried again and made it," his father recalled. "He sailed through boot camp and then went to (Basic Underwater Demolition)."

Assigned to SEAL Team 3 out of Coronado, Calif., Feeks completed several tours in Iraq before he was deployed to Afghanistan. On Aug. 16, 2012, Feeks was aboard a U.S. military helicopter that crashed during a firefight with insurgents in a remote area of southern Afghanistan. He was 28.

The 3.1-mile swim, one of the largest events of its kind in the world, benefits the Navy SEAL Foundation, a charity that helps the families of SEALS wounded or killed in action.
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USF President Got Call From VA Over Treatment of Florida Veteran

VA Secretary requests meeting with USF President over former student with PTSD 
WFLA News
By Mary McGuire
Published: December 29, 2015

“Veterans involved in a VTC program experience significant improvement in PTSD, depression, substance abuse, emotional well-being, relationships with others, recovery status, social connectedness, family functioning, and sleep.” Robert A. McDonald

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)– U.S. Army Green Beret Clay Allred’s fight to be reinstated as a student at the University of South Florida is now gaining the attention of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C.

Allred was disqualified for enrollment at the University after a violent episode in 2014, triggered by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Earlier this month, his house arrest order was terminated, but he still has not been granted entry to the University to complete the 17 credits he needs to get his degree.

Now, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert A. McDonald is urging the University to reconsider, requesting a sit-down meeting with University President Dr. Judy Genshaft to discuss the ways the VA and the University can work together to educate veterans who have completed veteran’s treatment court programs.
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Tampa Bay Lightning Donations Include Veterans Charities

Lightning owner has honored $10 million worth of Community Heroes
Tampa Tribune
Martin Fennelly
December 26, 2015

Lightning owner presents a check to Bruce Fyfe, one of the team’s Community Heroes. Fyfe is chairman of the Homeless Empowerment Program. which assists homeless veterans. With him is HEP president Barbara Green. JAY CONNER/STAFF

When Brooke Pasch was born 22 years ago, doctors told her family she wouldn’t live more than two weeks. There wasn’t hope. She suffered from VACTERL association. Her right arm was deformed — and so was every organ in her body. Her problems included heart and kidney disease, amid many others. Brooke was wired all wrong from the start. There’d never be a day without medicines. She carried them in her school backpack. And she led a hero’s life.

“I never met a person happier than Brooke,” said Kim Pasch, Brooke’s mother. “She loved helping people.”

Monday night marks a milestone at Amalie Arena. During the Tampa Bay Lightning’s game with Montreal, there will be a pause during the first period, about 10 minutes in, as there has been at every home game the past five seasons.

The Lightning Foundation and Lightning Community Heroes program will make another $50,000 donation to honor another hidden star, more local treasure: Sister Claire LeBoeuf, 73, who has dedicated her life to founding organizations that aid foster children, including New Life Village, a community for families who want to adopt harder-to-adopt children in foster care. She’ll choose to send the money in that direction.

Sister Claire will join the club Brooke Pasch has belonged to for three years. Sister Claire will be the 197th Hero in this remarkable program, one that brings 19,000 people to their feet as they watch each Hero pull on or hold up a Lightning jersey. Players on both teams will bang their sticks against the boards, a righteous hockey salute. And somewhere in the building will be Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, who with his wife, Penny, pledged $10 million over five years to create the Heroes program.

Monday’s donation will make $10 million.

They’re Richard Cadogan, 68, a disabled veteran who became a voice for children who’ve been abused, abandoned or neglected.

They’re Bruce Fyfe, who was reaching out to veterans even before he lost his son, Brendan, to the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder after three tours in Iraq. Fyfe oversees a 32-unit housing project for homeless veterans and their families.
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Squatters Took Over Veteran's Apartment While in Hospital

Veteran says squatters moved into his VA apartment, sheriff's office says they can't help 
He says he can't use his own bed or bathroom
ABC Action News
Adam Walser Dec 17, 2015

Taxpayers are footing the bill for burden's $700 per month apartment, but Burden says he can’t sleep in his own bed or access his bathroom.

TAMPA - A program aimed at helping homeless veterans get off the streets is falling short, as unwelcome guests are now calling one local veteran's apartment home.

Veteran Ron Burden says the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) program got him off the street and into his own place.

But when he ended up in the VA hospital for an extended stay, he says squatters moved in and are refusing to leave.

The I-Team spotted the woman now staying inside Burden's apartment walking up and down Nebraska Avenue earlier in the day.

Burden says she often brings strangers back with her.
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Disabled Veteran Stunned by Strangers Helping Him

Wounded Warrior stunned by the help of so many strangers helping to repair his home
Why dozens are helping repair his home
ABC Action News
Jackie Callaway
Dec 18, 2015

TAMPA - One look at Sgt. Brian Beck's home was all it took. Now, he's on the road to recovery in more ways than one.

Contractors from all over Pinellas County heard Sgt. Brian Beck’s story and volunteered their time and resources to turn his house into a home.

Earlier this year, Sgt. Beck says the contractor he hired to remodel his kitchen and bath gutted his house -- then abandoned the job.

We first visited the home in September. It was barren with no place to eat or bathe. We relayed Sgt. Beck’s story to Doug King with the Pinellas Chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry.

Without hesitation, dozens of NARI's contractor members took on remodeling Sgt. Beck’s home.
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USF Got $71 Million for PTSD Research But Failed Own Student?

USF received millions in the last "five years" for PTSD research but has yet to learn how to help veteran students with PTSD?

"USF has also received about $71 million over the past five years to develop cutting-edge PTSD treatments and other programs for veteran rehabilitation and reintegration into society."

Troubled veteran must serve sentence before re-enrolling at USF
Tampa Tribune
By Anastasia Dawson
Tribune Staff
Published: December 3, 2015

TAMPA — Qadratullan “Shawn” Hassan sat quietly by himself Thursday, listening to reasons a man he feared would kill him should be given a second chance at graduating from the University of South Florida.

A number of mental health experts say Clay Allred is ready to be reintegrated into USF, a judge says, and the court might even provide him an escort on campus.TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO

Hassan, 29, was working at a gas station and convenience store just steps from USF’s Tampa campus when former Army Staff Sgt. Clay Allred, 30, told the Muslim clerk, “I don’t like you people,” urinated on the store’s floor and fired his handgun into the air repeatedly.

Hassan said he has sympathy toward the man, who has suffered with post-traumatic stress disorder after tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a traumatic brain injury from a car crash.

Yet Hassan said the experience has given him nightmares of his own and was relieved USF’s Board of Trustees appeared to stand firm on its decision to keep Allred out of school until he finishes serving his sentence for the crime.

“It was a hate crime, and if it was a civilian I wouldn’t have taken it so bad, but it was a veteran and that hurt my heart,” Hassan said. “At that moment, I thought my life was over and I was just asking God for a miracle.”

Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Gregory Holder told USF’s thirteen trustees Thursday that Allred, a decorated veteran and former U.S. Army Green Beret, has made considerable progress with help from Holder’s Veterans Treatment Court.

Through veteran’s court, Allred has completed therapy for both PTSD and alcoholism. A number of mental health experts say Allred is ready to be reintegrated into USF, Hiolder said, and the court might even provide him an escort on campus.
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Navy Seal Veteran Death Organs Donated After Shooting

Slain SEAL's family recalls his integrity, puzzles over death
Tampa Tribune
By Howard Altman Tribune Staff
Published: December 2, 2015

Timothy Martin, 37, had gone to the SoHo Backyard, at 610 Armenia Ave., where Jeffrey Glenn, 33, an acquaintance and co-owner of the business, was working, police said

TAMPA — At the kitchen table of their brother’s South Tampa apartment, Nate and Hannah Fager smiled through pain as they shared their memories of him — Timothy Isaac Martin, a former Navy SEAL, military contractor, champion athlete, class clown and doting dad.

The siblings, along with their mother and other family members, came to Tampa when they heard the news that Martin was shot early Sunday morning at a South Tampa restaurant and bar, SoHo Backyard.

He died the next day at 37, his organs harvested so others might live.

“He was a good man,” said Hannah Fager, 33, sitting with her siblings among photos of Martin and his 4-year-old son Rocco. “He was a man of integrity.”

The Fager siblings, part of a blended bunch of 13 children, some adopted, recalled growing up so poor that they relied on donated food and Christmas gifts from strangers. They moved a lot before settling down in a small town in Wisconsin.

They recalled how Martin, a man of many passions, spent nearly four years studying to become a priest, only to join the Navy and become a SEAL. And how he left the SEALs in 2007, in part because he could not kill. And how Martin spent time overseas as a contractor, earning the kind of money he never knew growing up, and sharing as much as he could with those he loved.

They also remembered how Martin was proud, but not boastful, at serving as an advisor and making an appearance in the films, “Green Zone,” and “Zero Dark Thirty.”

But they also shared their frustration, eager to learn more about how and why their brother, unarmed, was shot by Jeffrey Glenn, the bar’s co-owner. Police say the two men were fighting when Glenn went to grab his gun.
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Judge Fights for Green Beret Veteran Kicked Out of USF

USF trustees pass on Holder's request to readmit expelled U.S. Army vet
Tampa Bay Times
Tony Marrero Times Staff Writer
Thursday, December 3, 2015

TAMPA — Despite a plea from Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Gregory Holder, the University of South Florida Board of Trustees on Thursday did not to act on a request to readmit a former U.S. Army Green Beret expelled after firing his gun at a Tampa gas station.

None of the 12 board members present brought up Holder's request for discussion after he spoke for three minutes on behalf of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Clary Allred, who needs 17 credits to graduate.

Allred was convicted of last year of aggravated assault and other charges in the county's Veterans Treatment Court, which Holder oversees.

Saying he came "not with a frontal assault but on bended knee," Holder urged the board to intervene. Typically, board members don't get involved in admissions decisions.

Hassan, 29, followed Allred outside to get his tag number and Allred pulled an AR-15 rifle from his Jeep and held it at his side in a threatening manner, police said. After a few more exchanged words, Allred handed Hassan a $100 bill, got in his Jeep and fired another weapon, a Glock handgun, into the air three times as he drove away.
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Vietnam Veteran Told Benefits Cut Off Because "You're Dead"

Vietnam veteran to VA: I'm not dead, restore my benefits
Tampa Tribune
By Howard Altman
November 5, 2015

Mike Rieker says he was contacted by the VA's St. Petersburg Regional Office on Wednesday and told his check would be deposited by Nov. 17. TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO

Mike Rieker survived the Vietnam War, where he was a Navy seaman serving aboard river boats. It was dangerous work that claimed the lives of 11 of his closest friends.

But Rieker could not survive the Department of Veterans Affairs claims processing system.

When his monthly VA disability check failed to show up in his bank account this week, the 69-year-old Dunedin man called to find out why.

A short while later, a woman from the VA’s Philadelphia office called him back.

“‘Your benefits were suspended because you are deceased,’” she told him.

“Well, wait a minute,” Rieker replied. “I’m talking to you.”

Realizing there was a problem, the woman told him to hold the phone. She came back to let him know that over the summer, a veteran named Michael G. Rieker died in Arizona.

“I’m Michael C. Rieker,” he said.

The woman then told him that in September, his wife filed for burial benefits.

“But I don’t have a wife,” he replied.
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PTSD On Trial: Tampa Marine After 3 Deployments

Matthew Buendia accepts plea deal in deputy shooting
FOX 13 News
Evan Axelbank
October 9, 2015

TAMPA (FOX 13) - The Marine who shot a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Deputy accepted a plea deal at the last second on Friday night, just as it appeared the jury would be hung and a new trial ordered.

"He felt he had enough," said defense attorney Mark O'Brien.

Matthew Buendia shot Deputy Lyonelle Deveaux during a domestic incident at his home in 2011.

Buendia argued he was suffering from PTSD and should not be held legally responsible for what he did.

"We are hoping that he will have a long life and be able to deal with the issues that he has," said defense attorney Mark O'Brien.

"I'm sorry," he said, unable to choke back tears.

"I forgave you a long time ago," said Deveaux.
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Jury considers fate of former marine
FOX 13 Tampa
Gloria Gomez
October 9, 2015

Moments later, his dad made a frantic 911 call saying his son had shot an officer. “He is 25”, Richard Buendia told the operator. “He’s a former Marine. He suffers from Post-traumatic stress syndrome”.

TAMPA (FOX 13) - “Matthew Buendia was a U.S. Marine who came back from 3 deployments a different man, a broken man”, his defense attorney told the jury Friday morning during closing arguments at his trial for shooting a Hillsborough County Deputy.

Prosecutors painted a different picture saying “Buendia knew exactly what he was doing” when he shot at Deputy Lyonelle De Veaux nine times the night of September 30, 2011.

Deputy De Veaux was hit by three of those bullets, in the arm, leg and shoulder.

She was called to Buendia’s Carrollwood area apartment to investigate a 911 call about domestic violence. When she got there, “Buendia tried to kill Deputy De Veaux” the prosecutor said Friday. She survived but scars are permanent, he told the jury.

When the defense got their turn, the focus turned to the mental scars of war. They told jurors that three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan left Buendia traumatized. They asked the jury to find him not guilty by reason of insanity, saying he had no idea who he was or what he was doing that night.
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Combat Medic Florida National Guardsman Paying Price for 9-11

If you forgot about 9-11-2001, there were a lot of folks rushing to do whatever they could to help the survivors and find whatever remains they could. One of them was an Army National Guardsman from right here in Florida. Reading his story and what happened to him, it only seemed right to put into context what he did back then. This is from Tampa Tribune great report by Howard Altman.

Garrett Goodwin was a medic, working in the emergency room at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, in September 2001.

On Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, he was in bed, watching TV before an afternoon shift, when he saw what turned out to be United Flight 175 hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

Goodwin, a combat medic with the Army National Guard who had experience in disaster recover efforts, says he packed his bag, hopped in his truck and drove down to MacDill Air Force Base, hoping to catch a flight north to help during the unfolding catastrophe.

But nothing was flying anywhere. So he and a friend drove north, toward the Pentagon.

“We did rescue work for three or four hours, but there was no one to save, so we went to New York,” Goodwin says.

They arrived about 6:30 a.m., Sept. 12. Goodwin says he checked in with the military authorities on scene, they told him what he could do, and he was given a “red card” allowing him access.

For the next 24 days, he worked between 18 and 20 hours in what used to be the tallest building in America. It had become a mass grave.

So how did he end up this way?

Tampa man ill just now from help he gave at Ground Zero
Tampa Tribune
By Howard Altman
Tribune Staff
Published: September 27, 2015

Garrett Goodwin is a casualty of al-Qaida’s war against the U.S.

Shortly after the jihadi organization turned aircraft into weapons, obliterating the World Trade Center in New York, hitting the Pentagon and crashing into a Pennsylvania field, Goodwin made the trip from Florida to Manhattan to help recovery efforts. He spent more than three weeks in the smouldering pile of twisted beams that was once the World Trade Center — the place where Pope Francis on Friday summoned the world to “unity over hatred.”

Now, Goodwin is paying the price.

It includes a stay, since last Tuesday, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he is desperately seeking help for the maladies he believes are a result of his time at Ground Zero.

Finally, after a health scare that started on the 14th anniversary of the attacks, Goodwin realized he needed greater medical attention.

There are many others like him — first responders who have became casualties of war by dint of their time searching the wreckage, first for survivors, then for remains.

Every day, there are more Garrett Goodwins, coming forward seeking help.
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Tampa Veterans Suicide Prevention Gets Numbers Wrong

How the hell does anyone expect to change anything as long as they trivialize suicides down to a soundbite? Putting the numbers of veterans suffering is far more complicated than just using a headline. The truth is we will never really know the true number.


These are some of the numbers they do know about and it has been more of an apocalypse even with thousands of calls to suicide prevention hotlines, charities all over the country claiming to be taking care of them and Congress spending billions every year.

The rate of veterans committing suicide is double the civilian population with the majority of them being over 50. Then there is the other figure of young veterans committing suicide at triple the rate of their civilian peers.

For female veterans the number is even worse. But why talk about any of them? After all, after all the claims of doing everything humanly possible to save their lives, it seems hardly no one is telling the truth. The worst part of all of this is veterans have been committing suicide double the civilian population rate since before 2007 and that percentage has remained unchanged.

The Department of Veterans Affairs research on suicides used 22 as an average and the press picked up on it but they missed the fact that those numbers were from limited data submitted from just 21 states.

Further, this report contains information from the first 21 states to contribute data for this project and does not include some states, such as California and Texas, with larger Veteran populations.

Information from these states has been received and will be included in future reports.
Suicide among Veterans – As Reported on Death Certificates

Of the 147,763 suicides reported in 21 states, 27,062 (18.3%) were identified as having history of U.S. military service on death certificates. However, Veteran status was unknown or not reported for more than 23% (n=34,027) of all suicides during the project period. Without linking to VA or DoD resources to validate history of U.S. military service, it is necessary to remove those without information on history of military service from estimates of Veteran status among suicide decedents. Among cases where history of U.S. military service was reported, Veterans comprised approximately 22.2% of all suicides reported during the project period. If this prevalence estimate is assumed to be constant across all U.S. states, an estimated 22 Veterans will have died from suicide each day in the calendar year 2010.

Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans reported by CBS News November 13, 2007

"Dr. Steve Rathbun is the acting head of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department at the University of Georgia. CBS News asked him to run a detailed analysis of the raw numbers that we obtained from state authorities for 2004 and 2005.

It found that veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 than non-vets. (Veterans committed suicide at the rate of between 18.7 to 20.8 per 100,000, compared to other Americans, who did so at the rate of 8.9 per 100,000.)"

So we have, as the following report shows, thousands of calls into the hotline but the numbers are showing one more thing no one talks about, the flip side of hell. Read the reports then go to the bottom for more.

Tampa Bay hotline aims at reducing veterans’ suicides
News Channel 8
By Steve Andrews Investigative Reporter
Published: September 4, 2015

TAMPA, FL (WFLA) – Every 65 minutes, a U.S. veteran takes his or her life. When army specialist Robert Bradford returned home from deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, his mother Monte Reinhardt, noticed a change. “He just wasn’t his usual playful self,” Monte recalls. She could see the depression in Robert’s eyes.

“At that point, I really didn’t know who to talk to about it,” she said.In July 2011, Robert tried to commit suicide. Nearly four months ago, in May, he died at the James A. Haley veterans hospital, from complications associated with his wound.

“The suicide rate alone for veterans right now is currently 22 veterans a day, that’s almost one veteran an hour,” said Jamie McPherson, an intervention specialist working at the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay. More than 300,000 veterans call Tampa Bay home. The Crisis Center hears from troubled veterans everyday.

“Upwards of about 2,500 to 3,000 calls on any given year were from veterans needing assistance,” Debra Harris, a director of 2-1-1 and suicide prevention services said. Debra points out the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs as well as other state agencies and funding sources are trying a revolutionary project in the bay area.
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You really want to reduce these veterans to a soundbite? Here's one. "2 Veterans Commit Suicide For Every 1 Civilian." How's that? Is that easy enough? Then consider one more fact.

How Many Veterans Are There?
There are 21.8 million veterans of the U.S. armed forces as of 2014, according the Census Bureau, approximately 10 percent of whom are women. To put that in context there are 319.2 million Americans, according to the bureau. The states with the highest number of veteran residents are California with 2 million, Texas with 1.6 million and Florida also with 1. 6 million, the bureau estimates. Each of these states have major military bases including Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Irwin in California and Naval Air Station Pensacola.

While it is true we will never know the real number of veterans committing suicide, the "22 a Day" claim is not even close.

So why isn't anyone asking why there are so many when the Suicide Prevention Hotlines get thousands of calls? Because if they did, then they would finally understand as bad as the numbers are, they would be even higher without the hotline.

Stunning when you think about these men and women were ready to sacrifice their lives for someone else, survived combat but couldn't survive back home.

Vietnam Veteran Puts Up Protest Billboard "VA Is Lying, Veterans Are Dying"

Angry billboard brings national VA protest to Haley center
Tampa Tribune
Howard Altman
August 31, 2015

The billboard is on the 1200 block of East Fowler Avenue near the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa. SALLY MULCARE

A national group of veterans and their families, upset with the Department of Veterans Affairs, has brought its protest to Tampa — in the form of a message on an electronic billboard on the 1200 block of East Fowler Avenue near the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital.

“VA is Lying, Veterans Are Dying,” reads the message, sponsored by a Facebook group called “VA is Lying,” launched by a Vietnam War veteran from Indiana.

“I started the Facebook group about two years ago because I was angry at the VA,” Ron Nesler said.

Nesler said he was upset, in part, about the treatment of his step-daughter, whose biological father is a Marine exposed to Agent Orange when he served in Vietnam. The exposure led to severe birth defects in the child and Nesler said his anger has been stoked by the VA’s poor response to a federal law mandating treatment for children of veterans exposed to the defoliant.

The VA’s actions on the matter have been “unconscionable,” said Rick Weidman, executive director for policy and government affairs for the Vietnam Veterans of America, a veteran service organization that has helped Nesler fight for benefits for his stepdaughter.
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Veteran Survived 3 Tours, Attempted Suicide But Not Tampa VA Hospital

Mom questions care at Tampa V.A. hospital
News Channel 8
By Steve Andrews Investigative Reporter
Published: August 29, 2015

Robert Bradford arrived at Haley in May 2012. He suffered paralysis from a gunshot wound to the neck. Robert did two tours of duty in Iraq, a third in Afghanistan. It wasn’t an enemy bullet that turned him into a quadriplegic. Suffering invisible wounds from post traumatic stress disorder, he attempted suicide in 2011. By the time he arrived in Tampa, his mother recalls Robert was eating a regular diet, moved about the grounds with his power chair and went on outings everyday. However, his condition deteriorated and in March of this year Monte told V.A. Secretary McDonald, she wanted her son “out of this grave yard.”

TAMPA, FL (WFLA) – The mother of a U.S. Army soldier claims the military sent her son to fight a war at the James A. Haley Veterans Administration hospital without ammunition.

Monte Reinhardt claims her quadriplegic son received substandard care, contracted infections and lived in unsanitary conditions. Her son Army Specialist Robert Bradford was a patient at Haley’s Spinal Cord Injury Center for three years.

“He didn’t really receive top notch care, he really didn’t,” Monte stated.

So earlier this year she fired off a letter to V.A. secretary Robert McDonald complaining of “unsafe staffing levels, no respect for sanitation practices,” pointing out Robert’s gums “are near rotten.”

“When I would brush his teeth, and I would not be rushed, the toothbrush would be bloody,” Monte added.

She wrote McDonald, that Robert contracted “a new infection weekly.”

“He would have a U.T.I.(urinary tract infection) and a couple of times it would get to the point where it was just flat out red,” she explained.

Robert died two days after surgery. His uniform shirt now hangs on a chair in her apartment.

The flag that draped his casket sits on a cabinet beside an urn that contains his ashes. read more here

Vietnam Veteran Committed Suicide in Bay Pines Parking Lot

Suicide at Bay Pines shows pain among older veterans
Tampa Tribune
By Howard Altman

Published: August 26, 2015

Ever since leaving the battlefields of Vietnam in 1968, Marine veteran Gerhard Reitmann struggled with the horrific memories of the things he did and saw.

“It was a rough one,” said his brother, Stephan Reitmann. “Emotionally, it did a number on his mind.”

Gerhard Reitmann had trouble holding a job. He often kept to himself and, until recently, cut himself off even from his family.

On Tuesday, Reitmann’s struggle ended.

The man who once served as a guard at Camp David during the term of President Richard Nixon apparently took his own life while parked in his car on the southeast side of the sprawling Bay Pines VA campus shortly after noon, according to officials from Bay Pines and the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner’s Office.

It was near Building 37, which houses the hospital system’s human resources, environmental management and inspector general’s offices.

Bay Pines police are investigating,

Reitmann, of St. Petersburg, was 66.

Stephan Reitmann and Aurin moved to St. Petersburg about five months ago from Ohio.

“My partner and I both retired. We were sick of cold and had my brother down here. We were getting the relationship back together.”

Reitmann “was really obsessed with his heath,” Aurin said. “Last month, he thought something was really wrong with him. But his doctors at the VA said he was as healthy as a horse.”

Still, Reitmann was having “a lot of anxiety,” Aurin said.

Last week, Reitmann’s VA doctor increased his anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medications, Aurin said.

“They said to up his medications a little bit, but it was not helping him,” Aurin said.

“That’s all we know.”

About a week ago, Reitmann’s brother made a pact.

“Stephan would call his brother every day,” Aurin said. “It made him feel better.”

Just hours before killing himself, Reitmann “got a little out of his routine,” Aurin said. “He actually called Stephan first. He said, ‘I wanted to call you first, and let you know that everything is good.’”

The conversation, said Aurin, “was light and fluffy.”

“One hour later, he was in the parking lot at the veterans hospital,” she said.
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Justice Department Wanted to Lock Up Doctor, VA Contractor Sent Him Patients?

The next time you hear any politician talk about outsourcing veterans care instead of making sure the VA works for all veterans, remember this story.

VA contractor sent patients to Tampa doctor as prosecutors tried to send him to prison 
Tampa Bay Times
Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer
Saturday, August 22, 2015

Dr. Chuma Osuji, indicted last year, admits in court papers that he prescribed controlled pain medications while he was barred from doing so by the DEA. Special to the Times

TAMPA — A Department of Veterans Affairs contractor sent dozens of veterans to consult with a Tampa doctor about disability claims this year, even as the Justice Department was trying to take away the doctor's license and send him to prison.

After inquiries by the Tampa Bay Times, the VA plans to take a fresh look at the claims of 57 veterans seen by Dr. Chuma Osuji "to ensure the veterans were accurately evaluated," said Karen Collins, public affairs officer at James A. Haley Hospital and Clinics.

The contractor, Veterans Evaluation Services, said a federal data bank that is the gold standard for doctor background checks makes no mention of criminal charges against Osuji. It doesn't include pending cases.

The 52-year-old doctor, indicted last year, admits in court papers that he prescribed controlled pain medications while he was barred from doing so by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

He was found guilty in July and is scheduled to be sentenced in October. The crime is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. On June 26, he signed a plea agreement that calls for forfeiture of his medical license.

If the stakes that day were high for Osuji, they were also high for Mike Evans, 62, a retired Army sergeant and prostate cancer survivor who visited Osuji's Gandy Boulevard clinic on June 26.

The doctor's subsequent report led the VA to propose cutting the veteran's monthly compensation from $3,172 to $579, covering diabetes and tinnitus but not cancer.
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VES AWARDED VA CONTRACT TO START NEW YEAR
On December 28, 2012, VES was awarded contract number VA798-13-D-0002 by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The five-year contract is funded under Public Law 108-183. VES will provide Medical Disability Examinations for the following Veterans Benefit Administration Regional Offices: Columbus, Ohio; Waco, Texas; St. Louis, Missouri; Lincoln, Nebraska; Des Moines, Iowa; Honolulu, Hawaii; Denver, Colorado; and Indianapolis, Indiana.

VES previously served the same Regional Offices for four-years with great success. The new contract will commence on January 1st, 2013. “We are honored that the VA has chosen our company to continue servicing the Veteran community,” says VES President, Travis Fitzpatrick. “We take great pride in our role in the Medical Disability process and expediting the claims of our nation’s heroes who have given so much for our country.”

What was it worth?

The Department of Veterans Affairs awarded this $171,481,668 contract to Veterans Evaluation Services Inc. for Evaluation and Screening.

The contract was signed on December 28, 2012 and will end on December 31, 2017.

Wounded Afghanistan Veteran Plans to Leave Wheelchair at Tampa VA

Wounded war veteran returns to Ark. hometown
THV 11 News
July 19, 2015

While his recovery has been rough, Moore is adamant about his future. He plans to return to the VA in Tampa to continue his recovery, and says he will stay there until he's out of his wheelchair.

War veteran Carl Wayne Moore III reunites with his family at Toad Suck.

(Photo: Jan Collins)

CONWAY, Ark. (KTHV) -A veteran, who was severely wounded during his second tour in Afghanistan, finally returned to his hometown on Sunday.

Carl Wayne Moore III was hurt in action on June 4, 2013 and has spent the last two years traveling to several states in the U.S. just trying recover and learn how to live with a spinal cord injury.
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WWII and Korea Kept Veteran From Prom, He Finally Got One 66 Year Late

Riverview couple goes to prom for first time at age 89 
ABC Action News
Christie Post
Jun 24, 2015

Now 66 years later, the couple finally got their chance at the Hillsborough County Aging Services Senior Prom.

A lot of us probably remember going to our high school prom, finding the perfect dress or corsage and maybe renting a limo to impress classmates.

If you never got a chance to go, you’re not alone.

For a Riverview couple it ended up on their bucket list.

At age 89, Ralph Wozniak still asks his wife, LaVerne, to go on romantic walks at their favorite park.

“Married to the same girl, and I'm happy for it,” Ralph said.

But he never got to ask her to the prom.

“We didn't have a prom because it was war time,” LaVerne said.

In 1944 Ralph enlisted in the Marine Corps then was deployed overseas during World War II.

“I couldn't make the prom, and I couldn't finish high school,” Ralph said.

When he got back he missed it again after getting a call this time to fight the Korean War.
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Veterans Response To Tampa Bay Jeff Miller Report

Jeff Miller forgets that he has been head of the House Veterans Affairs Committee since 2011.

United States Representative Jeff Miller serves as Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. The Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is responsible for authorization and oversight of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA.) VA is the second largest department in the federal government with over 300,000 employees and a budget of over $150 billion.

But Miller has also been on the Committee since 2001! Yep! So who does he blame? He blames the VA.

After taking the oath of office in 2001, Congressman Miller was appointed to the House Armed Services Committee and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. He quickly established himself within Washington as a strong advocate for veterans' concerns and immediately supported changes to concurrent receipt and policy changes such as a greater co-sharing between the military and veterans' clinics.

In that video Miller asked for Veterans to give their thoughts,,,,,,Here's some thoughts from veterans right here in Florida. "We're not gonna take it anymore!"

A year after VA scandal, House veterans committee chairman wants more progress
Tampa Bay Times
William R. Levesque
Times Staff Writer
Monday, May 25, 2015

The scandal has lifted Mil­ler's profile as he has become a sought-after quote by journalists reporting on the agency's deficiencies. And Miller, 55, is considering a 2016 Senate run for the seat expected to open as Marco Rubio seeks the presidency.

SEMINOLE — Whenever U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller attends a public event, veterans and Department of Veterans Affairs employees find him for short, intense conversations about one VA issue after another.

It happened after his Memorial Day speech at the Bay Pines Veterans Cemetery, where a short line of people waited to get a minute with the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs committee.

This is life for one of the VA's biggest Capitol Hill critics, who told the Tampa Bay Times on Monday he remains frustrated by the slow pace of reform at an agency hit in the past year by the worst scandal in its history.

"The VA did not get into the situation that exists today overnight," Miller said. "And it's not going to be resolved in a year's time. It is going to take an entire culture change within the department. There has to be transparency and accountability."

And too often, he said, those two qualities are still lacking.

The Pensacola Republican has been in the forefront of debate since the VA scandal erupted in April 2014 when a doctor at a Phoenix VA hospital said that 40 veterans there had died after delays in care and that the hospital kept a secret patient waiting list to hide its shortcomings. What followed was a series of revelations about the VA's widespread tactic of manipulating hospital performance measures nationally, its retaliation against whistle-blowers and patients lost in VA red tape.
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There is absolutely nothing that has happened at the VA that should have surprised Miller since all the reports have come out repeatedly since 2001....actually even before that, but admitting that would assume members of Congress have a conscience.

VA Inspector General Reports Include Tampa

VA mismanagement, malpractice detailed in reports 
Military Times
By Patricia Kime, Staff writer
May 17, 2015

More than 120 previously unpublished investigations by the Veterans Affairs Department's inspector general, dating as far back as 2006, reveal problems at VA medical centers nationwide ranging from medical malpractice and patient safety concerns to mismanagement, infighting and corruption.

VA Assistant Inspector General John Daigh posted the reports on the VA inspector general's website in April after receiving criticism that his office failed to disclose results of an investigation into the Tomah Wisconsin VA Medical Center charging that a psychiatrist prescribed dangerous amounts of painkillers and other medications to patients, resulting in at least one death.

Daigh told lawmakers he did not "hide" the results of the Tomah investigation and explained that he routinely closes investigations for a variety of reasons — either the facility under investigation has taken steps to correct the issue, a lawsuit has been filed over an incident, or, in the case of Tomah, allegations were not substantiated.

But lawmakers say procedures that allow VA facilities to fix themselves after being investigated by the department's inspector general make no sense.

Pointing to scandals that have plagued VA in the past year, ranging from off-the-books appointment wait lists to construction overruns totaling more than $1 billion to whistleblower intimidation and more, House and Senate lawmakers continue to question VA's commitment to transparency.

In Tampa, Florida, a physician at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital was counseled for more than two years by supervisors for prescribing controlled substances at rates "significantly higher than his peers."

The inspector general found that efforts to mentor the doctor "did not result in changes to his prescribing practices." But because the hospital was proactive in counseling the physician, the IG recommended only that supervisors also notify the Professional Standards Board and closed the case.

"While there was potential for harm to patients, we didn't find any patients that were harmed," the IG office wrote in the report.

Other reports ranged from poor practices to misrepresentation of credentials to doctor errors.
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