The largest veterans organizations have long been seen as dominated by men, especially before the recent wars dramatically increased the number of women with military and combat service. Army vet Mary Stout served as commander of Vietnam Veterans of America from 1987 to 1991, but none have followed in the last 25 years.
Soon after, his friends and their new girlfriends invited him to take a trip to Big Bear, enticing him with the promise of a date. It was Anita
Anita and Melvin, both World War II veterans who live in a Chula Vista veteran's home, just celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. (Courtesy of Mark Holt)
We were sent an article from the Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Press paper from November 10th 2013. In this article they interviewed what they believed to be an Iraqi War Veteran, and Wounded Warrior, Christina “Chrissy” Axtman.2014
As I began to read the story, red flags started flying. The person that emailed me said that Christina was telling everyone her story, and how she had earned the Bronze Star for Valor while deployed with the 173rd Airborne to Iraq in 2007. Notice the paper calls it a Division not a Brigade, although they operate as a Division they are not. I am not sure if this was her statement or just a mistake by the editor.
Not only that, but according to the 173rd’s Deployment history, in 2006 the Brigade was notified for a second tour of duty in Iraq from 2007 to 2008, but its deployment plan was changed to Afghanistan in February 2007 when the Pentagon announced that it would relieve the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division along with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. In the spring of 2007, the 173rd again deployed to Afghanistan, as Task Force Bayonet, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF 07–09). So the 173rd was not even in Iraq for the time frame she claims she was with them.
We've seen videos of Stolen Valor before — people impersonating someone who they are not while in a military uniform. Parrish Alleman of CBS-affiliate WIAT 42 in Birmingham, Alabama, launched a five-month investigation after receiving tips that a military member she had interviewed was a fake. It turns out after a lot of investigative reporting that Julee Johns had only served 16 days — not the 16 years she initially claimed.
“I’ve had veterans come up to me and say, ‘Because of you, I didn’t go home and eat a bullet,’ ” Dague said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, that resonates with you.”
Mary Dague talk about the blast which took both her arms when she was serving as an Navy EOD technician in Iraq in 2007. At right is Dague's husband James Cribbett. Devon Ravine/Daily NewsPurple Heart recipient and double-arm amputee Mary Dague said a person’s life can drastically change in the time it takes for a bomb to detonate.
Rebecca Barra poses with a photo of her mom Janet Barra, 58, a Navy veteran living in Patchogue Tuesday, June, 28, 2017. Rebecca Barra has been missing for the past twenty-two days and is struggling with depression but always stayed in touch with her daughter. (Credit: John Roca)Janet Barra, 58, of Patchogue, had struggled with depression since her days in the Navy but had always stayed in touch with her daughter, Rebecca.
The hearing was prompted in part by a CBS news story in November on suicides in the veteran population that put last year’s number of veteran suicides at over 6,000. VA officials refuted that number, questioning its validity. But a VA Inspector General report released in May of 2007 found that as many as 5,000 veterans commit suicide a year—nearly 1,000 of whom are receiving VA care at the time.
The senators also requested a detailed report on how the military monitors other psychological injuries. Recent media accounts indicate that the number of service members seeking care for PTSD from the Veterans Administration (VA) increased 70% over a 12-month period, or an increase of some 20,000 cases. In addition, reports of the total number of cases of PTSD treatment at the VA since 2001 – 50,000 cases – far exceed the number of wounded documented by the Pentagon.
Bush had to sign the act by Jan. 18, or VA would have lost the promised extra funding, which will be used to hire and train people to process the backlog of more than 600,000 benefits claims, said Dave Autry, spokesman for Disabled American Veterans. Some of the money also will go toward medical research for conditions such as traumatic brain injuries.And this which ties into the claim about the VA and DOD linking up data.
Peake wants to reduce wait times from roughly 180 days to 145 days by the start of next year. He cited aggressive efforts to hire staff, noting the VA will have 3,100 new staff by 2009. VA also is working to get greater online access to Pentagon medical information that he said will allow staff to process claims faster and move toward a system of electronic filing of claims.2008 Deaths at VA Hospitals and What Congress Knew
Peake promised to “virtually eliminate” the current list of 69,000 veterans who have waited more than 30 days for an appointment to get VA medical care. Such long waits runs counter to department policy, and a group of Iraq war veterans have filed a lawsuit alleging undue delays. He said VA plans to open 64 new community-based outpatient clinics this year and 51 next year to improve access to health care in rural areas.
“We will take all measures necessary to provide them with timely benefits and services, to give them complete information about the benefits they have earned through their courageous service, and to implement streamlined processes free of bureaucratic red tape,” Peake said in testimony prepared for a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing Thursday.
The VA will help affected families file administrative claims under the VA's disability compensation program, he said. Families also could sue.
...........The VA investigation found that at least nine deaths between October 2006 and March last year were "directly attributable" to substandard care at the Marion hospital, which serves veterans from southern Illinois, southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky.
Kussman declined to identify those cases by patient or doctor, though Rep. Jerry Costello, an Illinois Democrat, said those nine deaths were linked to two surgeons he did not name.
Of an additional 34 cases the VA investigated, 10 patients who died received questionable care that complicated their health, Kussman said. Investigators could not determine whether the care actually caused the deaths.
“Women who served this country in uniform -- whether veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, the current Global War on Terror or peacetime service -- have earned our respect and thanks,” said Dr. James B. Peake, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. “They have also earned the full range of VA programs offered by a grateful nation.”By the way, if any member of Congress dares to suggest sending veterans away from the VA, remind them, if they cared, they would have done their jobs in the first place. Or actually, second place, considering veterans did their jobs first and ended up disabled risking their lives!
Secretary Peake also announced the Fourth National Summit on Women Veterans Issues to be held from June 20 – 22 in Washington D.C. The Summit will offer attendees an opportunity to enhance future progress on women veterans issues, with sessions specifically for the Reserve and National Guard, information on military sexual trauma and readjustment issues, after the military veteran resources and many more programs and exhibits.
A Cobb County veteran’s life has been a mess ever since she got a letter from the government telling her she was dead, according to Channel 2 Action News.Channel 2 Action NewsCobb County veteran Dorothy Evans
KILLEEN, Texas (KWTX) A service for a U.S. Navy veteran whose family could not be found after her death last month was laid to rest Tuesday in the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen.(Photo by Tianna Jenkins)
Is she right?The Department of Veterans Affairs has a woman problem. Need evidence? Look no further than its motto: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.”That motto – engraved on plaques outside VA buildings across the country, featured proudly in VA presentations and on the agency’s website – comes from President Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. It was an eloquent and well-meaning statement in its time. But the face of U.S. troops, and veterans, has drastically changed since then.Today women are nearly 20 percent of recruits, 15 percent of the active duty and 18 percent of the reserve component. We have been on the battlefields of every U.S. war and conflict over the past decade, with more than 345,000 women deployed since Sept. 11, 2001. And we will be the fastest growing segment of the veteran population over the next five years, with our numbers expected to top 2 million by 2020.
Though relatively little official data exists about female Vietnam War veterans, the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation estimates that approximately 11,000 military women were stationed in Vietnam during the conflict. Nearly all of them were volunteers, and 90 percent served as military nurses, though women also worked as physicians, air traffic controllers, intelligence officers, clerks and other positions in the U.S. Women’s Army Corps, U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marines and the Army Medical Specialist Corps. In addition to women in the armed forces, an unknown number of civilian women served in Vietnam on behalf of the Red Cross, United Service Organizations (USO), Catholic Relief Services and other humanitarian organizations, or as foreign correspondents for various news organizations.
Women Veterans PopulationWomen Veterans Need More Support, So When Do We Do It?
The total Veteran population in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Territories/Foreign, as of Sept. 30, 2016, was 21,368,156. The population of women Veterans numbered 2,051,484. States with the largest number of women Veterans were Texas, California, Florida, Virginia and Georgia. State-by-state totals are as follows:
Alabama 44,190
Alaska 10,283
Arizona 54,953
Arkansas 21,361
California 163,332
Colorado 46,793
Connecticut 16,626
Delaware 8,797
District Of Columbia 3,843
Florida 154,820
Georgia 93,251
Hawaii 12,820
Idaho 10,153
Illinois 55,458
Indiana 36,245
Iowa 15,512
Kansas 18,528
Kentucky 25,351
Louisiana 32,411
Maine 10,081
Maryland 58,413
Massachusetts 25,711
Michigan 45,499
Minnesota 25,891
Mississippi 20,777
Missouri 39,157
Montana 8,613
Nebraska 11,853
Nevada 21,592 Nevada Female Veteran Suicides
New Hampshire 8,706
New Jersey 33,197
New Mexico 17,173
New York 65,756
North Carolina 86,791
North Dakota 4,991
Ohio 67,554
Oklahoma 30,948
Oregon 28,207
Pennsylvania 71,319
Puerto Rico 5,322
Rhode Island 5,213
South Carolina 47,442
South Dakota 6,609
Tennessee 46,358
Texas 183,597
Utah 11,885
Vermont 3,338
Virginia 111,034
Washington 65,405
West Virginia 10,586
Wisconsin 33,916
Wyoming 3,815
Territories/Foreign 10,010
Total Women Veterans 2,051,484
"An estimated 22 veterans commit suicide each day, or one every 65 minutes, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs."WRONG Here is the link to the VA Suicide report from 2012 she is still using and within it, the VA had a warning about using the "22 a day" but the headline was grabbed and even I believe it until I found the actual report and read it.
"The estimated number of Veterans who have died from suicide is based on data obtained from 21 states and has been calculated using service history as reported on death certificates. An assessment of Veteran status on Washington State death certificates identified a measurable amount of error among those with history of U.S. military service. Therefore, estimates of the number of Veterans who have died from suicide each day based on proxy report of history of U.S. military service should be interpreted with caution."WHY
Limitations of Existing Data Currently available data include information on suicide mortality among the population of residents in 21 states. Veteran status in each of these areas is determined by a single question asking about history of U.S. military service. Information about history of military service is routinely obtained from family members and collected by funeral home staff and has not been validated using information from the DoD or VA. Further, Veteran status was not collected by each state during each year of the project period. Appendix B provides a listing of the availability of Veteran identifiers by state and year. 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.PLUS, forgotten in all the reporting is that it is older veterans who need the most help but are getting none of the attention from reporters.
Specifically, more than 69% of all Veteran suicides were among those aged 50 years and older, compared to approximately 37% among those who were not identified as Veterans.ANOTHER FACTOR OVERLOOKED AND UNDER REPORTED ON
There also appears to be a seasonal trend with more suicide events in the spring and summer months noted in 2010 and 2011.Fishman wrote this part and got it right
"Female veterans commit suicide at nearly six times the rate as other women (they're 33 percent more likely to use a gun than overdose on pills). They are also two-to-four times more likely than civilian women to be homeless, according to federal statistics."BUT LEFT OUT
The rates are highest among young veterans, the VA found in new research compiling 11 years of data. For women ages 18 to 29, veterans kill themselves at nearly 12 times the rate of nonveterans.In every other age group, including women who served as far back as the 1950s, the veteran rates are between four and eight times higher, indicating that the causes extend far beyond the psychological effects of the recent wars.So if anyone asks, I'm glad reporters care now, but greatly saddened by the fact too many just don't seem to care enough.
For Delaware female vets, every day a struggle
The News Journal
Margie Fishman
May 26, 2017
This Memorial Day, Petters wants you to remember the soldiers who died on and off the battlefield."Our American Hero" wears military fatigues, an M16 and a perma-smile next to two emblems of freedom — a waving American flag and the Statue of Liberty's blazing torch.
Delaware Air Force veteran Kim Petters sneers at the framed photograph, which she retrieved from her garage at a reporter's request. Her photo album, capturing a decade of service, is missing in action.
Since retiring from the military in 2012, it's been a daily struggle for the Dover mother of four, who feels robbed of her freedom by a war she still doesn't fully understand.
"We went in looking for weapons of mass destruction, right?" the petite brunette grumbles. "Did we find any?"
Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Petters can't pass an American flag in a flower bed without her mind racing to flag-draped coffins. She thrashes so hard during intense nightmares that her husband must hold her legs down.
"All I can see is 20 bodies," says the former medical administrator, who was tasked with shepherding fallen soldiers home during the Iraq War. "I can almost smell it again."
read more here
The couple next tied Cam to a tree, the warrant said. Cam sat down and turned away from Rollins right before she shot him in the head. She then shot him a few more times, according to court documents.
“It’s such a weight off,” Winn said through tears after hearing the news Friday. “When my father left me the land, I knew it was important to keep it.”Thanks to donations from the Williamsburg community, Army veteran Kimberly Winn will be able to keep land that has been in her family for five generations.
Kimberly Winn will be able to keep her land as the result of a community effort to raise her funds. (Andrew Harris/WYDaily)WYDaily reported Thursday that Winn was delinquent more than $2,400 in fees associated with her two-acre Toano property. The veteran of the first Gulf War had until Friday to pay off her delinquency.
Regina McIntyre Early’s discharge papers showed she served at multiple Army hospitals in France during and after World War 1. (Photo courtesy of Ed Saunders)Saunders said McIntyre Early could quite possibly be the first female veteran of WWI who was an enrolled member of an American Indian tribe in Montana.
"You raised your head a little higher, you clicked your heels a little harder and you walked on," Gilliam told an audience at the Ohio History Center. "Today, I'm hoping, it is different."At 94, World War II veteran Ruby Gilliam would like to be able to say she outlived the problem. But she knows that the fight against discrimination and harassment are far from over for America's military women.
"It's one of those things you never imagine yourself doing. I've never been a 'girly girl.' I didn't wear high heels; I wore a uniform and combat boots."
Sandy Gessler
