The late Captain James ‘Dustin’ Samples of the Cleveland Fire Department may still save lives

TN lawmakers name act after firefighter who died after long PTSD battle

FOX 17 Nashville
by Sydney Keller
Monday, January 30th, 2023

"We can’t legislate away traumatic accidents and emergencies, but we can remove obstacles to getting support when firefighters need it. Addressing the crisis of PTSD and suicide in the fire service requires a commitment to both prevention and treatment from all stakeholders and that’s what SB856 aims to do."

Two Tennessee Republican lawmakers filed an act Monday which aims at providing support for firefighters who are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

State Sen. Paul Bailey (R-Sparta) and Rep. Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville) filed the James ‘Dustin’ Samples Act in honor of Captain James ‘Dustin’ Samples of the Cleveland Fire Department who sadly committed suicide in 2020 after a long-time battle with PTSD.

Sen. Bailey says that lawmakers owe it to firefighters and those who work to save lives to do all they can to prevent any risk of injury on the job.
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Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan lost Marine veteran brother to COVID-19

Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan says coronavirus killed her Marine brother

Fox News
By Robert Gearty
March 24, 2020

“THIS is why we must #StayHome,” Flanagan wrote. “If you feel fine, that’s great. But please consider the possibility that you’re carrying the virus and don’t know it, and then you walk past the next Ron, my big brother, in public. COVID-19 now has a personal connection to me. Please do all you can to prevent one for you.”

A man who died of the coronavirus in Tennessee over the weekend had served in the Marines and was the older brother of Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan.

She shared the sad news in an Instagram post Sunday night, Fox 9 Minneapolis reported.

“To many, he’ll be a statistic: Tennessee’s second COVID-related death,” she wrote. “But to me, I’ll remember a loving, older brother, uncle, father and husband.”
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Female veteran with PTSD from sexual assault rejected 11 times for service dog!

Service dog helps military sexual assault survivor

News 5
By: Alexandra Koehn
February 23, 2020

"I received 11 rejection letters from programs across the country because my PTSD came from military sexual assault and not from combat. With every one of those rejection letters, it felt more and more crushing." Stefanie Marvin-Miller

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WTVF) — A military sexual assault survivor said a service dog has helped her heal from post traumatic stress disorder.

Stefanie Marvin-Miller was the first female in her family to serve our country, but that service led to a dark time in her life.

"In January of 2016, I was the victim of a violent sexual assault by another service member," Marvin-Miller said, "Military sexual assault, PTSD is very intense. It’s very real, and it’s valid. It’s a real problem."

Dealing with the impact of the traumatic event has been hard.

"It was a very difficult thing to do, and to speak up for, and say that happened," Marvin-Miller said, "For me specifically, it will be disassociating, so going back into a memory, and not feeling like I’m in the present anymore, or connected to the present."

She decided to apply for a service dog that would be capable of getting her to a safe place during an episode.

"I received 11 rejection letters from programs across the country because my PTSD came from military sexual assault and not from combat," Marvin-Miller said, "With every one of those rejection letters, it felt more and more crushing."
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Tennessee boasts 32 of the Medal of Honor Recipients

A look at Tennessee's Medal of Honor recipients and their stories

Chattanooga Times Free Press
by Sabrina Bodon
February 1st, 2020

The state of Tennessee boasts 32 of the medal's 3,525 honorees thus far, including a Signal Mountain native for whom the new Charles H. Coolidge National Medal of Honor Heritage Center is named.

Medal of Honor awards are displayed during the third annual Celebration of Valor luncheon at the Chattanooga Convention Center on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2019, in Chattanooga, Tenn. / Staff file photo

On multiple occasions, while awarding the Medal of Honor, President Harry S. Truman remarked, "I would rather have the blue band of the Medal of Honor around my neck than to be president of the United States." But when Congress attempted to award the badge to him in 1971, he wrote to the House that he did " ... not consider that I have done anything which should be the reason of any award, Congressional or otherwise."

Truman continued, saying the medal was for combat bravery, and awarding it to him would detract from that significance.

"This does not mean I do not appreciate what you and others have done, because I do appreciate the kind things that have been said and the proposal to have the award offered to me," Truman wrote. "Therefore, I close by saying thanks, but I will not accept a Congressional Medal of Honor."

Fifty-two medals have been awarded for acts of valor that occurred in and around Chattanooga, including one to Mary Edwards Walker, the only female recipient. read it here

Wynonna Judd welcomed paralyzed veteran to new home

Paralyzed veteran gets free home in Murfreesboro

WKRN News
by: Stassy Olmos
Posted: Sep 22, 2019

“Five years ago, get a call two in the morning that he was in an accident all the way up in St. Louis,” Camacho’s friend Liam Cronin said in the ceremony Saturday, “Drive up the next day and spend the next day, and spend the next week sleeping on a hospital cot beside him.”

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) – It’s the simple things many of us take for granted, like getting in and out of bed or taking a shower all by ourselves, that paralyzed Army Sergeant Bryan Camacho hasn’t been able to do in years. ‘But, thanks to the nonprofit Homes for Our Troops, the solider now has a brand new home in Murfreesboro, with special amenities to help.

The Murfreesboro community welcomed their new neighbor on Saturday morning.

This homecoming much more encouraging than the last one 12 years ago when Sgt. Camacho returned from Iraq.

Camacho was first injured in 2007 as an Infantryman deployed with the 10th Mountain Division in Iraq. He was paralyzed from the waist down when his vehicle ran over an IED.

Slowly recovering in the U.S., Camacho was in another accident in 2014. His adapted truck spun out on ice and rolled, paralyzing him from the neck down.
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Bodycam captured moment police officer saved man who jumped off bridge

Dramatic body camera video shows officers catch man who jumped off bridge

WSMV News
Emily Van de Riet, Digital Content Producer
Sep 18, 2019

(Meredith) – Newly-released body camera video shows officers in Tennessee clinging onto a man who jumped off a bridge.

The officers who saved the man in April are now being recognized for their quick actions.

Knox County Deputy Brian Rehg and Knoxville Police Lieutenant Chris McCarter both said they were at the right place at the right time.

Rehg, a 13-year police veteran, said he is used to being called to a scene after something tragic has already happened, but he’s not used to a situation where he saves someone from jumping.

“After 13 years of service and seeing all kinds of things, to actually save somebody like that… it feels good,” Rehg told WATE.
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Puppy with Missing Leg Adopted by Amputee Veteran

The military veteran, who lost his leg after an IED exploded, adopted a dog who had lost its leg

PEOPLE
By Matt McNulty
August 03, 2019

Puppy with Missing Leg Adopted by Amputee Veteran: 'It's Impossible to Not Smile Around Him'

“It’s impossible to not smile around him,” Ferguson said. “Everybody’s so happy to see him, then they notice he’s got 3 legs. He’s happy you were overjoyed to see him, don’t pity him!”

A military veteran from Tennessee who lost his leg after an IED explosion found a new best friend after adopting a dog with a missing leg.

Joshua Ferguson took home three-legged Scooter on Thursday, after adopting the pup from the Humane Society of Dickson County in Dickson, according to WTVF in Nashville.

“He makes it easier for me to remember, hey it’s still a beautiful day,” Ferguson said Scooter. “You realize really just how tremendous a journey life is.”

Scooter was discovered with a severed leg in a wooded area at Johnson Creek near Burns, Tennessee, in June, with veterinarians believing the dog got his leg stuck and was forced to gnaw it off in order to free himself and find food, WTVF reported.

The dog’s mangled leg was eventually amputated at the Animal Medical Hospital.
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Abused Pit Bull and Disabled Veteran find healing together

New Beginning for Abused Pit Bull, Franky, and Combat Veteran

Clarksville Now
By Jessica Goldberg
June 15, 2019

Retired Sergeant Major Chris Self, is no stranger to overcoming adversity. An Army Special Forces veteran, Self has also served as a military police K-9 officer. In 2005, Self sustained gunshot wounds to both his legs. In 2006, he had to have his right leg amputated to return to active duty.

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – What some thought may be the end of one dog’s life, turned into a beautiful new beginning. Courage, tenacity, and the strength to overcome brought one Fort Campbell solider and man’s best friend together. Franky, the pit bull discovered earlier this year suspected of being used as a bait dog, has finally found a forever home.

On Friday, Retired Army Sergeant Major, Chris Self, was surprised at Nashville International Airport with 18-month-old Franky. “It’s a boy,” shouted Dana Self, Chris Self’s wife. Chris Self bent down to meet his new companion.

Montgomery County Animal Control received a call April 14 to pick up a dog. What they saw shocked everyone. A pit bull with gruesome head injuries, including half his scalp missing and ear flaps ripped off. Maggots infested the open wounds. Bite marks surrounding his head, neck, and legs, coupled with the other injuries led authorities to believe this poor creature had been used as a bait dog in dog fighting.
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26 year old bit off finger of 71 year old Vietnam veteran he was fighting?

Tennessee man accused of biting off Vietnam vet's fingertip during argument

By: Bob D'Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
May 8, 2019

CHARLOTTE, Tenn.
A Tennessee man is accused of biting off the fingertip of a Vietnam veteran during a fight outside a Dickson County convenience store, WKRN reported.

Dylan McKinney, 26, was arrested after the Sunday incident in Charlotte, Tennessee, the television station reported. The district attorney is investigating whether to charge McKinney with a hate crime after the alleged attack on the 71-year-old man, according to WKRN.

McKinney was charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, public intoxication and aggravated assault. He remains in the Dickson County Jail in lieu of a $62,000 bond.

McKinney, who told the television station he had been drinking when the incident occurred, said the victim put his finger in his mouth. That’s when McKinney said he bit down.

“It sounds gruesome, but I don't regret biting a man's finger off when he stuck it in my mouth and tried to tear my jaw off,” McKinney told WKRN.

McKinney said he was wearing a hoodie with a Confederate symbol and the veteran, who is black, took offense and cursed at him.

The verbal fight soon turned physical, McKinney told the television station.

“My first thought, maybe he has a gun in there, and so I did everything I could to make sure he couldn't get to anything inside his truck,” McKinney told WKRN. “As far as the confrontation, I guess you would say, maybe I started that.

“We were fighting. I didn't have time to put his finger in my mouth and eat it. I'm not a cannibal or anything like that.”
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Tender moment when blindfolded son hears Dad's voice

Soldier surprises son with tearful homecoming during Taekwondo practice

WTHR
March 19, 2019

LEBANON, Tenn. (WTHR) - A soldier posed as a sparring partner to surprise his young son in a tear-jerking homecoming surprise.

Nine-year-old Luca Cesternino had a blindfold on as he sparred during his Taekwondo class near Nashville Monday night. He had no idea his partner was his dad.

Once Tennessee Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Rob Cesternino called his son by his nickname, the boy stopped, asked "Daddy?" and ripped his blindfold off.

After seeing his father, Luca jumped into his arms for a tearful reunion.

SSG Cesternino was home after spending ten months serving in Jordan and southern Syria. He came home a few days earlier than Luca expected, setting the stage for the big surprise.

go here if video does not load because it is one that you'll be happy you watched.

Disabled Gulf War Veteran has VA benefits restored because reporter cared!

Disabled Campbell County veteran's VA benefits restored

WATE 6 ABC News
By: Don Dare
Posted: Feb 14, 2019

LAFOLLETTE, Tenn. (WATE) - A disabled Campbell County veteran has had his VA benefits fully restored following a WATE 6 On Your Side investigation.

Mike Sanders is a Gulf War-era veteran. The former Army sergeant badly injured his back during his service and is now unable to work. From 1987-1994, he served as a research lab assistant with the Chemical Corps, and later as a field medic.

Two weeks ago, WATE reported that Mike Sanders was losing his benefits after earning 18 cents in salary in 2017. The VA took quick action to correct a mistake.
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Double amputee OEF OIF veteran driven to inspire!

Double amputee veteran chases truck driving dream

WKRN
By: Adam Snider
Posted: Feb 14, 2019 12:07

CHRISTIANA, Tenn. (WKRN) - A dream decades in the making was nearly taken away from a local veteran.

"There's dark days out there. Depression, I've had to fight through them. But man, lately I've kind of forgotten about them." Erin Schaefer

Outside of Christiana though, for the last several weeks, he's worked to achieve this goal.

"My dad was a trucker so that's all I've known," said Erin Schaefer, an Army veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. "I just love the open road, being out there with the truck. Just myself and my thoughts."

Those thoughts sometimes take him back to the Army and his final term in Afghanistan.

It was on this trip in 2010, that he was in the wrong truck at the wrong time.

"Was out on a convoy taking supplies from one base to the next. Came to a halt because the other truck in the rear of our convoy had become disabled," he explained. "Started moving again, and the IED blast went off."

Erin is now an amputee, losing both his legs below the knee.

"There's dark days out there," he said. "Depression, I've had to fight through them. But man, lately I've kind of forgotten about them."

He's found new life, thanks in part to an old passion.

Erin is now seeking his CDL, at the Truck Driver Institute (TDI) outside Christiana.
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Representative Phil Roe thinks oversight of VA is waste of time?

Oversight of the VA is not a waste of time!

“That’s a waste of time,” Representative Phil Roe of Tennessee, the highest-ranking Republican on the committee, said in an interview last week about the group. “If they go big on that, it won’t be good.”

Mr. Roe, how the hell can you sit on this committee and say anything is a waste of time considering what the outcome has been for our disabled veterans?

This attitude is part of the reason veterans do not trust the government to do the right thing, or honor their side of the deal for the blank check they wrote on their lives.

Selling out the service of our veterans is deplorable and this investigation is part of what was pulled off against their best interest.

We have watched and waited after a long line of Administrations made speech after speech while our community heard excuses for the speeches turning out to be empty words delivered seeking our votes.

Enough! Someone has to start being held accountable for all that has gone wrong at the VA, just as what has gone right needs to be rewarded.

You say it is a waste of time? Is it a waste of time to learn exactly who benefited by these meetings? Is it a waste of time to discover why our veterans are still committing suicide and no one has a clue, or interest, in doing anything more than settling for speeches claiming they care or "awareness" campaigns that spread the misery instead of healing?

Maybe you also consider it a waste of time while for profit healthcare business make money while for years members of the Congress have been telling citizens how lousy our healthcare is, but now it is OK to kick veterans into the same system and it will be good for them?

Has it not dawned on you that THEY PAID FOR THEIR HEALTHCARE IN ADVANCE WHEN THEY BECAME DISABLED SERVING WHERE CONGRESS SENT THEM?

Your waste of time is FUBAR! Maybe you should read exactly what the House Veterans Affairs Committee is actually responsible for?
Our Jurisdiction
Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is as follows:

(1) Veterans’ measures generally.
(2) Cemeteries of the United States in which veterans of any war or conflict are or may be buried, whether in the United States or abroad (except cemeteries administered by the Secretary of the Interior).
(3) Compensation, vocational rehabilitation, and education of veterans.
(4) Life insurance issued by the Government on account of service in the Armed Forces.
(5) Pensions of all the wars of the United States, general and special.
(6) Readjustment of servicemembers to civil life.
(7) Servicemembers’ civil relief.
(8) Veterans’ hospitals, medical care, and treatment of veterans.

House Democrats, Newly Empowered, Turn Their Investigations on Veterans Affairs

New York Times
Jennifer Steinhauer
February 8, 2019

According to a report last year by the nonprofit investigative news organization ProPublica, the three pressured Mr. Trump’s first veterans secretary, David J. Shulkin, then peppered him with demands before ultimately working with personnel in the department to oust him. The group also pushed — in most cases, unsuccessfully — for certain vendors to manage health care records, and had a direct line to the president.

WASHINGTON — The new Democratic leadership of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee said Friday that it would investigate the influence exerted by three members of President Trump’s Florida beach club on the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The move was viewed as an early, and powerful, indication that the committee, which has always been known as among the most bipartisan on Capitol Hill, could adopt a harder edge under the new Congress as empowered Democrats move to scrutinize the administration.

The investigation was announced in a letter to Robert Wilkie, the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, from Representative Mark Takano, Democrat of California, the new chairman of the committee. Mr. Takano requested documents and “information about alleged improper influence” of the members, Isaac Perlmutter, Bruce Moskowitz and Marc Sherman, “over policy and personnel decisions of the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

Mr. Takano said the three men exerted inappropriate influence over procurement at the sprawling department.
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"It doesn't go away at the end of the shift."

'I remember every tragic thing I've seen' - Local firefighters open up about mental health

News Channel 9
Kayla Strayer
January 30, 2019

"The worst things that I've personally seen are burn injuries to children," Hyman said. "Trauma to children, those are some of the worst ones."

The Chattanooga Fire Department launched a peer support program in an effort to help firefighters deal with the mental stress of their jobs. (Image: Jim Lewis)

It doesn't go away at the end of the shift. 

"I remember every tragic thing I've seen, especially kids," Lewis said.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.
Suicides among first responders are on the rise, says Chattanooga Fire Chief Phil Hyman.

"Our firefighter suicides throughout the nation have actually exceeded the line of duty deaths that we have," Chief Hyman said. "In 2017 we had 103 firefighter suicides, and only 93 line of duty deaths."

First responders deal with death and destruction, sometimes on a daily basis.

"We expose our members to a lot of bad stuff that's the nature of our job," Hyman said. "Most of the stuff you see you can't unsee."

Dallas Bay Volunteer Firefighter and Chaplain Jim Lewis says, "It's a slideshow in your head."

A sickening slideshow of tragic images.
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Unclaimed Tennessee veterans laid to rest with honor

Unclaimed veterans buried with dignity, thanks to strangers

The Associated Press
By: Adrian Sainz, Karen Pulfer Focht
January 20, 2019

Soldiers Arnold M. Klechka, 71, Wesley Russell, 76, and Marine Charles B. Fox, 60, were laid to rest in a service attended by about 700 people at West Tennessee Veterans Cemetery in Memphis on Thursday. There was a gun salute, and a bagpiper played “Amazing Grace.”

In this Jan. 17, 2019, photo, a retired U.S. Marine master gunnery sergeant salutes three Memphis veterans, Wesley Russell, 76, Arnold Klechka, 71, Charles Fox, 60, who died this past fall and whose remains were unclaimed, in Memphis, Tenn. (Karen Pulfer Focht/AP)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — When the flags were removed from the caskets and folded with military precision, there were no family members there to receive them.

So, the banners were passed, hand-to-hand, through the crowd.

Some mourners wept as they clutched the flags briefly. Others kissed them. But the three veterans laid to rest on a rainy Memphis morning were strangers to most of those who gathered to honor their memory.

The service was part of a national effort by funeral homes, medical examiners, state and federal veterans' affairs departments, and local veterans' groups to pay final respects to members of the military whose bodies were not claimed by any relatives. Since 2000, Dignity Memorial and other funeral homes in more than 30 cities have organized about 3,000 funerals for soldiers, sailors and Marines who died alone, but still deserved a dignified funeral and burial, said Jeff Berry, Dignity's general manager in Knoxville.
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Caring for triple amputee "part of spousal duty" to VA?

Nashville VA reinstates triple amputee veteran's full-time caregiver services after Tennessean report

Nashville Tennessean
Yihyun Jeong
Nov. 21, 2018

A triple amputee veteran will have his full-time caregiver services reinstated after the Tennessean reported Wednesday that the Nashville VA initially decided to deny the level of his caregiver's benefits.

Staff Sergeant J.D. Williams lost his right arm and both legs while deployed with the 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan in 2010.

He was discharged and sent home, where his wife, Ashlee Williams, was assigned and paid by the VA to be his caregiver.

But after six years, she wrote on Facebook on Nov. 17, the VA decided to lower her husband to the lowest tier of the program, determining that he no longer needs a full-time caregiver.

She claimed that the VA assumed that the care she provided her husband, including helping her husband with applying prosthetics and lifting him into a wheelchair about 10 times a day, was part of her "spousal duty."

"...should have been included on the marriage certificate according to the VA," Ashlee Williams wrote in a post that was shared more than 25,000 times on Facebook by Wednesday morning.
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#MissingVeteranAlert: PTSD Veteran

Hardin County veteran reported missing
Jackson Sun
Cassandra Stephenson
Sept. 24, 2018

A 30-year-old veteran suffering from PTSD has been missing for several days, according to the Hardin County Sheriff's Department.

Terry Michael Woodall was last seen in Hardin County. He recently received treatment at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Memphis, according to the Hardin County Sheriff's Department.

Officials have no vehicle description and do not know Woodall's intended direction of travel.

Woodall is described as a 6-foot-tall white male weighing approximately 195 pounds.
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In other news...the failure of raising awareness

We just posted how a veteran had a mental health crisis situation at Tampa Airport. He served six tours in the Air Force...but is seems as if there are a lot of stories that should make national news. 

Apparently, people who put their lives on the line to save others, still have not been made aware they are killing themselves. 

Oh, wait, my bad! They have been aware of that for a very long time.  Seems they missed the message on how to change the outcome and heal!

Like these!

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) - An hours-long standoff in a northeast Memphis neighborhood ended peacefully Wednesday afternoon, after a man fired shots from his home and barricaded himself inside. 36-year-old Alfred LaBarre, a war veteran according to Memphis police sources, now faces several charges.

MINDEN TOWNSHIP — Benton County Sheriff Troy Heck said the Sauk Rapids man who apparently took his own life on Sunday was a military veteran in crisis.

The incident brought authorities to a standoff with the man, forced neighbors to evacuate the area around the 7300 block of Minnesota Highway 95 and shut down that road.

The news release from Heck's office said the victim was Rodolfo Alberto Gomez Jr., 44, of Sauk Rapids, a military veteran.

This marks the third Chicago officer to die by suicide in the last two months The Chicago police are mourning the loss of one of their own again.

The Chicago Police Department says a veteran officer took her own life Wednesday morning—marking the third suicide within the department in just two months.

Search ends for missing veteran Donovan Jared Crittendon

Body of Army veteran missing for nearly a week found in Cumberland River
The Tennessean
Amy Nixon
June 9, 2018

The body of a Hartsville man missing nearly a week was found in the Cumberland River this morning in Trousdale County.

The body of Donovan Jared Crittendon, 26, was recovered from the Cumberland River just west of the 141 bridge in Trousdale County around 8:30 Saturday morning, according to authorities.

Members of Crittendon's family shared a Facebook post which said that the Army veteran was last seen Sunday, June 3.
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PTSD Veteran sexual abuse made worse under Caregiver program

Sexually abused veteran raises new questions about VA caregiver program
WJHL News
By: Nate Morabito
Updated: May 25, 2018

JOHNSON CITY, TN (WJHL) - A Johnson City woman's experience with Mountain Home VA raises more questions about a Veterans Affairs program already under scrutiny.

The VA's caregiver program pays family members to care for post-9/11 veterans with catastrophic injuries. Kim Coble is one of those veterans. She is a victim of military sexual trauma, according to medical records.

As a result, her husband is paid by the VA to take care of the Army veteran, but both say her mental illness only worsened once they entered the program at Mountain Home last year.

"I was really devastated emotionally," Coble said when we interviewed her on March 9. "I just wanted to end my life."

Those words would haunt her in the coming months.

Lawmakers created the VA caregiver program years ago without clear guidelines in Congressman Phil Roe's view. The House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman (R), TN-District 1, said Congress gave each VA facility too much leeway initially.

"It's being looked at," Rep. Roe said of the increased oversight the program is now receiving. "We need to paint the white lines on the road for it, so this is how you do this."

"It makes us feel like we can't make a difference," Martin said. "Nobody's going to listen. Nobody cares." 

"That makes me feel very hopeless and helpless," Coble said. 

In the days after that meeting, the veteran said she attempted suicide. 

"I just went very numb and I tried to kill myself," she said. "I took almost a whole bottle of pills." 

Doctors have since treated and released Coble following her suicide attempt.

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